Chapter Twenty-Eight: The King Storms the City and Comes to the Rescue

Hearing Li Wei say that these heavy mortars could not stay, Fan Chengkun and Mu Yi were very disappointed. Fan Chengkun said: "Li Wei, you are not interesting enough. The good things are covered by themselves, it's too unusual. ”

Li Wei said: "Oops! I said, can you listen to me? ”

Fan Chengkun said: "Okay, you say it." ”

Li Wei said: "I found this time that our heavy mortars still need to be improved. In particular, the firing table of this artillery is not finished, and now only I can use this cannon. So even if I give you the cannon, you won't be able to use it. And the shells of this cannon are too expensive to shoot casually like small cannons. And now we only have these five guns, and we still need to use them to make a shooting table. ”

Fan Chengkun said: "It seems that we will have to wait a few days when we use it." ”

Li Wei said: "You will have better artillery, Mr. Zhang said that when he comes back this time, he will let Li Yunhe make new artillery." Let's finish the firing table of this cannon as soon as possible. Waiting to test the new cannon. ”

This time, Liu Yun and the others not only brought grain, but also brought 20 pigs, 50 sheep, and a lot of vegetables to the Tongguan soldiers.

In the evening, the officers and soldiers of Tongguan who finished transporting grain were killing pigs and sheep. This is not much for a team of tens of thousands, but it does too much to restore morale. Especially today, we won another battle and saved a lot of face. It made the officers and men very happy.

Sun Chuanting and the others tonight brought out the two jars of wine sent by Liu Yun to make celebration wine. First, this wine is a good wine that has been stored in the kiln for almost a year, and the quality of the wine is good.

After a few rounds of drinking, Sun Chuanting was a little drunk. With tears in his eyes, he said, "It is the incompetence of this governor that has dragged down the brethren." I'll punish myself with a glass of wine. After saying that, a glass of liquor went straight to the stomach.

Ning De said: "My lord, victory and defeat are a common thing in soldiers, and if it weren't for the heavy rain from the sky, we might have caught Li Chuang's thief, and my lord doesn't have to blame himself." We salvaged a moment today. The thieves could not recover their strength to attack us in a few days. We should count it as a tie. ”

The other generals knew that today's victory could not be compared with Li Zicheng's big victory a few days ago, but they still echoed it and said, "Yes, yes!" ”

Sun Chuanting said: "I'm ashamed to death. If we hadn't been helped by people today, would we have had this big victory? We must remember that we owe the love of the kiln people, and if anyone lives, don't forget to repay the favor. ”

Sun Chuanting's words made everyone bow their heads. Sun Chuanting himself lowered his head, but he drank too much and fell asleep.

In Li Zicheng's old camp over there, the atmosphere was too dull. Unexpectedly, countless elite cavalry were killed and injured today, and his own general, Hao Shaoqi, was almost folded in the formation, and he was still too injured and unconscious.

Li Zicheng made a self-examination and said: "I am to blame for today's defeat, we should learn the lesson of being attacked by the Yaogang people last night, we still underestimate the enemy." Everyone must know that with the help of Tongguan's Yaogang people, it is not easy for us to win. We rushed in and attacked directly, which shows that we are too underestimated from the beginning of the day. In any case, we are facing tens of thousands of officers and soldiers, especially the Yaogang people who help on the Yellow River, although we have suffered a terrible defeat today, but the defeat is reasonable, there is no reason to be undefeated. The main responsibility for today lies with me, everyone is dispersed, go back, and comfort the officers and soldiers. ”

All the generals went out, and Li Zicheng asked Niu Jinxing: "Military advisor, can't we find out how the kiln gang people made these strange things, can't we imitate them?" ”

Niu Jinxing smiled bitterly and said, "The musket that Li Guo got back last time with his life, we can't produce it now." Now they've got these guns again. No wonder our navy was defeated at once. And the kind of shells they ended up fighting with today are too good to shoot. I asked, and it was terrible that after that kind of shell exploded, there would be no living people within a few feet. ”

Li Zicheng said: "Can't our intelligence personnel do something in detail? ”

"Alas! People are too tightly guarded for ordinary people to approach. It's not easy. Niu Jinxing replied.

Li Zicheng said: "In the past few days, we have repaired ourselves well, and we are not in a hurry to attack first. ”

The letter sent back to Liu Yun in Yaogang by speedboat made some difficulties for Chen Yufeng and Ouyang He. Zhang Zhimu is not at home, whether to support Sun Chuanting to return to Shaanxi, and how to support this matter is up to the two of them to decide.

Ouyang He said: "Don't be in a hurry to decide this matter, I see that they won't be able to get out for a while." ”

Chen Yufeng said while thinking about it: "I think, I still support Sun Chuanting's return to Shaanxi, and Li Zicheng will follow him soon when they go back, so it is good for Governor Sun to consume more Li Zicheng's strength for us, otherwise it will be very troublesome for Li Zicheng's remaining troops to be solved by us." ”

Ouyang He said: "We have seen the place in Tongguan, how could a generation of famous generals like Sun Chuanting give up the Twelve Cities and make himself so passive? In this case, Li Zicheng did not need to take down Tongguan and surrounded it with soldiers, and the army could also bypass Tongguan and enter Shaanxi directly. I don't know if Li Zicheng will enter Hanzhong before Sun Chuanting. ”

Chen Yufeng said: "When we go to class in the future, we should also talk more about the things we should pay attention to when fighting against the wind. I am worried that our officers and men have always been fighting with the wind, and they will react even worse when they encounter setbacks. I really need to think about it. However, Liu Yun and Fan Chengkun fought well and were willing to use their brains, so they were good commanders. ”

"Liu Yun and Fan Chengkun are both people who can take on great responsibilities, and I am also very optimistic about the Mu Yi next to Fan Chengkun, and Shi Tao who stayed in Yaogang to do the sextant is also good. In the future, we will provide them with an opportunity to show their talents. Ouyang He said.

Chen Yufeng said: "This Qin Peng is not bad, you see that the General Staff is very organized, you and I can save a lot of worry." ”

"Haha!" Chen Yufeng and Ouyang He laughed together.

Ouyang He said: "I think we still have to reply to Sun Chuanting's letter." I promised him first and supported him with 10,000 stone of grain. Their canes and other rods were gone, and I saw that our camels gave them five hundred heads, and five hundred horses. Otherwise, they will not be able to take food with them. If there is not enough left, they can collect carts in Tongguan. Our grain can be sent directly from the Yellow River to Weinan by flat-bottomed boat into the canal. The rest of the way they'll be a little easier. ”

Chen Yufeng said: "I think that if the Buddha is sent to the West Heaven, we will send the forage and salt together." Give them another 20,000 taels of silver, so that they can resist in Shaanxi for a while, and the money and grain are worth it. ”

Ouyang He smiled and asked, "Twenty thousand taels is a little less, right?" ”

Chen Yufeng said: "If we usually give Sun Chuanting 200,000 vehicles, he wouldn't think it's too much, but now he will be very satisfied." In fact, we really gave them 200,000 taels, Sun Chuanting couldn't turn over, and Li Zicheng wouldn't give him a chance. Besides, whether the court can let him go, it's a matter of two things. Twenty thousand taels make do with it! and where we have silver, we have many. ”

Ouyang He said: "Yes, if we make a move, the money will be like flowing water." Yesterday I met Li Yunhe, and he said that the rifle production line will be put into operation soon, and if it is put into production, it will be able to produce 500 rifles per month. This kind of gun is easy to grab, and it's also a silver-swallowing guy. With a snap of my finger, I felt like a bunch of silver had gone out. ”

Chen Yufeng laughed and said, "How do I think you are becoming more and more like Mr. Lu." Ha ha! ”

"Don't say it, Mr. Lu has encountered such a thing as involving the military, but he has never picked it out. I feel like Mr. Lu has become a different person. Ouyang He said.

"Haha! You don't know, now Mr. Lu is very confident. The money we earn in the kilns is uproaring. One of our boxes of matches can be exchanged for two sheep in the mouth of the tiger, and there are other things that will soon turn into silver as long as they are shipped out. Chen Yufeng said.

At this time, Ouyang He wrote a reply, called the person sent by Fan Chengkun to deliver the letter, handed him the letter, and told him to send it to Liu Yun as soon as possible.

After the messenger left, Ouyang He said: "It is estimated that one day, the war in Tongguan will be stabilized, we should quickly send two warships to Huai'an, and let Li Mao send people to Changsha and Xiangtan as soon as possible to get back some manganese ore and tin ore." In this way, we will rush back before the Fen River and the Yellow River freeze. ”

Chen Yufeng and Ouyang He came to the big map, and Ouyang He said: "Our two lucky ships enter the sea from Huai'an to the mouth of the Yangtze River into the Yangtze River, and go to Zhenjiang to meet our people. The two ships were under the command of Mu Yi, who was familiar with the affairs of the sea. Li Mao: They have set up a point at Zhenjiang Wharf, where we have permanent personnel. Our barge was towed through the canal by two flat-bottomed boats to Zhenjiang and Fuchuan to join the boat, so it was much safer to go up the river. That's pretty much the same thing a year ago. ”

"I think we still have a little bit less of a flat-bottomed boat, three are not enough, and we have one boat left after going south to two. I had no choice but to use the fortune boat as a tugboat. Chen Yufeng said.

Ouyang He said: "Don't worry, Mr. Zhang is studying to build a special tugboat by himself, and the horsepower will be greater than the current one, and one will be used for two at that time." ”

The speedboat quickly delivered Ouyang He's handwritten letter, and Liu Yun immediately sent a signal to contact the Tongguan defenders and send the letter into Tongguan City.

Sun Chuanting's hands trembled and cut open Ouyang He's sealed letter, and after reading the letter in one breath, he said happily: "The people of Yaogang help me, God helps me!" ”

Ning De and others were also very happy. They didn't know that the money and food of the Yaogang people were really not spent in vain, and their officers and soldiers even the people of Tongguan thought that the Yaogang people were their saviors. The Yaogang people have not arrived, and they have already collected the hearts of the Tongguan military and civilians.

Li Zicheng's army did not attack for several days. After the Yaogang people sent grain to Tongguan again, they took two warships and accompanied the two flat-bottomed boats with five barges each to go south.

Li Zicheng did not attack, and Fan Chengkun used the turbulent Yellow River as a training ground for military training, and they lined up in a horizontal line in the Yellow River for a while, a column for a while, and a goose-shaped formation for a while. Troops were trained in Tongguan.

Inside the Forbidden City, Beijing.

After Emperor Chongzhen received the report that Sun Chuanting was defeated, he knew that he had lost the last card in his hand.

Emperor Chongzhen couldn't believe that Sun Chuanting, who had been spreading good news, could suddenly be defeated. That's the elite soldiers and strong generals who concentrated a few provinces of the Ming Dynasty, how could they be defeated by those grass robbers. was so angry that he scolded: "Sun Chuanting misunderstood me." ”

Those ministers were even more indignant at this time, and they unanimously demanded that the emperor cure Sun Chuanting's crimes. Emperor Chongzhen asked: "After curing Sun Chuanting's crime, which of you will clean up that mess." So far, Sun Chuanting's life and death are unknown, you don't think about the way to rescue, just think about treating others to offend, what is the reason? ”

These ministers knew that they had gone too far.

Looking at the chaos of the Ming Dynasty, Emperor Chongzhen couldn't help but ask in pain: "Where have Governor Sun's soldiers and horses retreated, and how many of them are there?" ”

"Now retreat to Mengjin, they are preparing to retreat to Tongguan in the whole team, and defend to meet the enemy. It is said that there are more than 50,000 more. Governor Sun's fate is unknown. ”

Chongzhen could imagine that the 100,000-strong army was defeated for thousands of miles. It must have been a loss of armor, with countless casualties.

When Sun Chuanting led people to retreat to Tongguan, Emperor Chongzhen got a report that Sun Chuanting was not dead, but Sun Chuanting had lost most of his baggage, horses, grain and grass, and was no longer able to fight. At this time, Emperor Chongzhen breathed a sigh of relief, he didn't think that Sun Chuanting deserved to die, but now no one can turn the tide like Sun Chuanting, and he can't find anyone to replace him. However, Emperor Chongzhen no longer had the ability to support Sun Chuanting's Tongguan, which made Emperor Chongzhen feel very helpless. He asked the ministers of the court to donate money to support, but the ministers pretended to be crazy and stupid, and many even deliberately hung signs on their houses to make a gesture to sell their houses. made Emperor Chongzhen cry and laugh.

At this time, he also thought of Zhang Zhimu from Yaogang, but he had just sent a letter to the people of Yaogang, hoping that the 500,000 taels of silver and 5 million yuan of Yaogang coins promised by Zhang Zhimu would be sent to the capital as soon as possible, and he didn't know if they could lend him the silver after he detained them last time. Now I don't have the face to beg someone. However, with experience, when the kiln people are like this, they will definitely take the initiative to help.

Sure enough, news came that the Yaogang people used the night to shell Li Zicheng's camp, destroyed a large number of artillery, killed countless Li Zicheng's soldiers, and basically used artillery to pear Li Zicheng's camp along the bank of the Yellow River, and the next day sent a large amount of grain to Tongguan, and cooperated with the Tongguan defenders to defeat Li Zicheng's cavalry who tried to rob grain.

Emperor Chongzhen was very happy, and he excitedly said to those ministers: "You all say that Zhang Zhimu is anti-minded. Look, is there such a person who is rebellious? At every critical time, Zhang Dongjia came to help in time. This time, I didn't hold a grudge against the previous suspicion last time, which shows this person's generosity even more. It is rare for a person to have such a mind in ancient times. It's really a big husband, too. ”

At this time, none of the wise ministers would say anything more to touch this mold. They also all know that Emperor Chongzhen just grabbed a life-saving straw.

After a few days of preparation, Li Zicheng began to attack again.

However, this time the direction of their attack was the south of Tongguan City, because this direction could avoid the artillery fire of the Yaogang people across the entire Tongguan City.

The result of Li Zicheng's discussion with the military advisers was that now the artillery fire of the Yaogang people is on the ship, and their steam ships are highly mobile and powerful, and we have no way to deal with them, but if we seize Tongguan and they are afraid of the damage caused by artillery fire to Tongguan City, we can condescendingly use artillery fire against them in Tongguan City. If the kiln artillery comes ashore, we will use the tactic of crowds to drown them and take their artillery.

However, if you want to avoid the artillery fire of the Yaogang people, you can only start the attack from the south. Therefore, they concentrated all their artillery fire in the south, and as soon as the battle began, they beat the north side of Tongguan from the city to the city, and the smoke of gunpowder was filled.

Under the cover of artillery fire, Li Zicheng's officers and soldiers, holding shields and braving strong bows, rushed to the city with ladders, and the people in front fell in batches, and the people behind rushed up in batches.

After the people in the city were concentrated, the people in the city lit the fire and threw down the ** sent by the kiln people. ** In the crowd of people constantly exploded, suddenly under the city, there were countless casualties, no matter how brave Li Zicheng's officers and soldiers were, they couldn't stop the bombing. The first attack, it was defeated. Li Zicheng's men suffered numerous casualties, and the defenders of the city also suffered heavy casualties under intensive artillery fire. Although the artillery fire on Tongguan was also very dense, the number of artillery in one direction of Tongguan City was too much worse than the number of artillery according to Li Zicheng.

Liu Yun, Li Wei, and Fan Chengkun, who were watching the battle on the Yellow River, were all a little anxious, but they couldn't make any effort. However, after Li Zicheng withdrew from the army, Li Wei said: "You can use binoculars to see that there is a cloud of smoke on the hillside to the south, and it must be an artillery position of Li Zicheng." ”

Liu Yun and Fan Chengkun both looked at it with binoculars for a while, and they both agreed with Li Wei's opinion. Li Wei said: "Our mortars can't reach there, but our 120 heavy mortars can hit there with a three-stage charge." ”

Liu Yun said: "When Li Zicheng attacks again, you use 120 heavy mortars to give them a few shots, which is enough for Li Zicheng to cry for a while." But if you can hit there, you must shell the shells outside the northern wall of Tongguan, right? ”

Li Wei smiled and said, "You are vicious enough, when Li Zicheng's army starts to build a cloud ladder, we will give them a few more times." Then Li Zicheng is too miserable. ”

After regrouping, Li Zicheng's army began to attack again at dawn the next day. This time the artillery fire took a longer time to prepare, and it seems that there are obviously a lot more artillery pieces added.

Li Wei ordered five 120 heavy mortars to be lifted to the dock. He kept looking through the binoculars and calculating. Then he came to the dock, personally operated the cannon, adjusted the shooting of Zhu Yuan, personally picked up a cannonball, sent it to the gun, and then squatted. The cannonball "thumped" out, and did not wait for the shell to fall. Li Wei picked up the telescope again and aimed at the bullet point, and a puff of white smoke rose from the bullet point in the distance, and then the dull sound of a shell explosion came. Li Wei nodded with satisfaction, corrected another shot of Zhu Yuan, fired another shot, and then adjusted the shooting of Zhu Yuan, and passed the shooting of Zhu Yuan to the other four guns. After the other four guns adjusted to shoot Zhu Yuan, Li Wei ordered: "Three shots in a row!" ”

Then five heavy mortars, each of which fired three shells.

Li Zicheng and military advisor Niu Jinxing, who were watching the battle from behind, knew that it was not good after seeing the first heavy mortar fall, they didn't expect the shells on the ship to hit so far, not to mention that the artillery fire density of the kiln gang people was high but the firing range was short?

When the second shell fell, Li Zicheng's artillerymen knew that the third shell would fall on their heads. But the strict discipline made no one dare to leave their positions.

However, the third shell came not one, but five shells that had been corrected by Li Wei for two firing parameters, and the five shells blew up Li Zicheng's artillery position like hell at once. But then two more five-shells landed on the position. The shock wave set off by the explosion of the cannonball made Li Zicheng and Niu Jinxing, who were watching the battle from a distance, have to turn around.

In fact, they really didn't want to see the destruction of the artillery position.

In the end, there was a mushroom cloud that exploded and exploded. This artillery place was completely wiped out.

Li Zicheng's heart kept beating non-stop, as if his heart was about to jump out of his throat, I don't know if it was the explosion of the shell just now, or if he really felt sorry for the artillerymen on the tip of his heart. Li Zicheng sat there paralyzed, unable to move for a long time.

At this time, Li Zicheng's officers and soldiers had already braved the rain of arrows to rush to the city and began to build a ladder. Although the city is still greeted by stones, Li Zicheng's officers and soldiers did not retreat, they really followed one after another, and kept pouring into the city.

But the soldiers in the city knew that if they came up, they would die. The two fought together in this way.

Liu Yun came to the dock and said to Li Wei: "Li Wei, don't wait. After a little longer, Li Zicheng's people climbed the city wall. ”

Li Wei said: "Seeing that you are in a hurry, I originally wanted to wait for a while." Then listen to you, don't wait. ”

Because he had already adjusted the shooting Zhu Yuan according to the parameters of Fang Cai, Li Wei ordered: "Three shots in a row!" ”

This time, Li Wei assigned the firing targets to each gun, and lined up along the line outside the southern part of Tongguan City. Coupled with the natural distribution of the shells, the lethal effect of this shelling was even more amazing, and Li Zicheng saw that his soldiers were scattered like leaves in the explosion of the shells, and he knew that this battle could not be fought.

Li Zicheng's soldiers who attacked the city originally began to attack together today with the determination to die. But they were all stunned by this series of loud noises, and they all stopped their movements, and stopped here stupidly, motionless. The soldiers in the city were also shocked to stop moving.

After a while, Li Zicheng's officers and soldiers began to retreat quietly, as if they were afraid of alarming the people in the city, and they were all silent. The soldiers in the city also tacitly did not make any more moves, so the soldiers on both sides silently separated.

Li Zicheng's meticulously prepared attack was again in vain.

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Mechanics of Materials, Theoretical Mechanics, Elastic Mechanics, Fluid Mechanics. --Progress of "Memories of the Southern Song Dynasty".