Chapter Fifty-Three: Xiurong's Bloody Battle, Artillery Wins

At the same time that Li Zicheng sent someone to Yaogang to send a signboard, he also brought Zhang Zhimu a sentence, "If Brother Zhimu is willing to join hands with Brother Wei, we can conspire with the world." ”

Zhang Zhimu asked the envoy to bring a message back, "We Yaogang people don't want to be enemies with anyone, if King Chuang's army does not attack Yaogang, we can not be enemies of King Chuang, if King Chuang has to impose war on us, we have to accompany to the end." ”

The return of the kiln people was expected by Li Zicheng.

Li Zicheng and his generals discussed, for the sake of safety, they felt that Xiurong in the south of Yaogang should be taken first as a base for attacking Yaogang. So the battle starts with contouring. After Xiurong Zhixian refused to surrender, Liu Zongmin's army began to attack Xiurong from all sides. Originally, Liu Zongmin's army now had an advantage in artillery, but the defending army, as long as they found that there was artillery of the Dashun army there, would definitely open fire and destroy the artillery as soon as possible. Without artillery support, this siege battle would not be easy to fight. Later, Liu Zongmin came up with a solution, taking advantage of his large number of artillery, pushing out the artillery from all sides at the same time, and firing artillery at the city together, so that the defenders could not win, and the soldiers attacked from all sides.

This method really worked, and the red-clothed cannon in the distance began to bombard Xiurong City. The shells did not reach the city walls, but they landed in the city, killing and wounding many people. At this time, the kiln artillery on the city wall found that it was not a way to attack the artillery under the city everywhere, and they should first concentrate their firepower to knock out the red-coated artillery that posed the greatest threat. Later, they ignored the tiger squat cannon and bowl mouth cannon that had moved to the city, and specifically attacked those powerful red-coated cannons, and soon the tactics took effect. The red-coated cannons were silent one by one. The artillery that attacked the city was also blown aside by bow thunder and crossbow thunder. Most of the cave cars that attacked the city were also smashed by the boulders. The ** that the kiln gang gave to the defenders will work this time, although these ** are not drawn and are loaded with black**, but they are large, and they are lit on fire from above and thrown down, killing and injuring the siege infantry is very effective. Because there were 1,000 elite infantry sent by the Yaogang people scattered on the city wall, the officers and soldiers and citizens who defended the city were very encouraged, although they had not participated in the battle, but with them here, the morale of the army was much more stable. Especially in the war, there is no distinction between soldiers and civilians fighting in the city, and the mutton soup and white flour buns are full. All this is nothing to the soldiers of Yaogang, but in this famine era, it is very attractive to this beautiful soldier and civilian.

In fact, whether it is a siege or a defender, we all know that the first attack is to test each other's opponent's strength.

The result of the first test made Li Zicheng and Liu Zongmin a little worried, and it could be seen that it was really the kiln gang people who assisted in the prevention and retouching. Now the battle is almost the same as the direct fight of the Yaogang people, although the intelligence said that the Yaogang people only sent more than 1,000 people to Xiurong, although the artillery fire in the city is not too dense, but the accuracy and the power of the cannonballs are really terrible, and they have not suffered less losses from their cannonballs in Tongguan.

Niu Jinxing said: "Your Majesty, we have to be prepared to shed more blood, otherwise we won't be able to take this show, and we won't be able to fight the battle in the future." ”

Niu Jinxing's words reminded Li Zicheng of Liu Fangliang's fight against Lishan, and thought, "This Xiurong must not be the second Lishan." However, Li Zicheng has seen any kind of formation, and when he encounters setbacks, he can arouse his pride, and he said to Liu Zongmin: "Zongmin, no matter how many people die, you have to take this show for me." ”

Liu Zongmin said: "Master, don't worry, even if you use people, I will also pile up in Xiurong City." ”

At this time, Li Yan and the red lady came, and when Li Zicheng saw the two of them, a little smile appeared on his face, and he said, "Sit down, you two have worked hard." ”

Li Yan said: "We're not late! King Chuang. Li Yan still couldn't change his title. Li Zicheng's left and right did not unify the names of Li Zicheng, and Liu Zongmin called Li Zicheng "master" all the time. Niu Jinxing originally wanted to order Li Zicheng to be the emperor, but Li Zicheng refused. Because those different titles represent different emotions, Li Zicheng still cherishes those emotions very much.

After everyone sat down, Li Zicheng said: "You have come at the right time, we have surrounded the Yaogang Tuantuan, and you can just participate in this battle to solve the Yaogang people." The Kiln Gang has already rejected our offer. Today, Zong Min and them met in Xiurong first, and it seems that this opponent is not very easy to deal with. We need to be careful. ”

The red lady said: "Lord Chuang, think about it, we have hundreds of thousands of horses, and they are only one or two hundred thousand people together. Are we still afraid that they will not succeed? ”

This red lady also had her own team before participating in Li Zicheng's team, she turned out to be a performer on the rivers and lakes, and she was good at rope skills. Later, he rebelled with Li Yan and pulled up a team and surrendered to Li Zicheng.

This Li Yan has a background, he turned out to be the son of a wealthy family in Qixian County, Henan, and he studied very hard, and he was promoted at a young age. The famous "Song of Persuasion" is his masterpiece. At that time, the disaster and famine in Henan were very fierce, and Li Yan took out 200 stone of grain from his family to help the poor who had run out of food. For a wealthy child, this is rare. Later, the magistrate falsely accused Li Yan of bribing the hearts of the people, wanting to rebel, and wanting to be unfavorable to Li Yan. The red lady usually heard that Li Yan donated food for disaster relief, and admired it very much, but now that she heard that Li Yan was in danger of being harmed, she took Li Yan out to hide.

Later, the red lady persuaded Li Yan to join their team, but Li Yan was unwilling. Not long after, I sneaked back from the red lady. Li Yan didn't expect that as soon as he went home, the messenger would arrest him as soon as he saw Li Yan.

When the red lady heard the news, she led a team to attack the county yamen, opened the prison, and rescued Li Yan. There was no way, Li Yan felt that there was no way out to go home, so he followed the advice of the red lady and defected to King Li Chuang with the hungry people who rebelled.

At this time, Li Zicheng and Li Yan admired each other, and they didn't expect that one day, they would kill each other.

Later, after Li Zicheng's team grew, he began to rectify the troops, strictly enforce discipline, and also accepted Li Yan's suggestion and put forward the slogan of "Juntian is exempt from taxation." Many children's songs promoting Li Zicheng are written by Li Yan, such as the famous sentence "Open the door to meet the king, and the king will not pay food when he comes" is Li Yan's masterpiece.

Li Yan's great influence on Li Zicheng was to persuade Li Zicheng to "respect the virtuous and courteous, eliminate the mob and compassionate the people", and recommended the military advisor Niu Jinxing to Li Zicheng, and Niu Jinxing recommended Song Xiance to Li Zicheng. It's a pity that if history hadn't changed, Li Zicheng would have listened to Niu Jinxing's slander and killed Li Yan.

Now Li Yan is still Li Zicheng's brother who fights the world together, but the kiln people over there also appreciate Li Yan very much, and for him, they arranged a puzzle for Li Zicheng.

At this time, although Li Zicheng admired the heroism of the red lady, he also said worriedly: "I'm not afraid of the kiln people, but I'm afraid that everyone will underestimate the enemy, and that will make a mistake." ”

Song Xiance told Li Yan and the red lady about the troubles they encountered again, and Li Yan and the red lady said, "You must be careful and will not underestimate the enemy." ”

Xiurong's situation has been notified to the kiln command center by telegram. The sound of cannons from the direction of Xiurong can also be heard on this side of the kiln.

Ouyang He said: "Xiurong's heavy mortars are useless yet, let them get ready tomorrow, I'm afraid there will be a fierce battle tomorrow." The heavy mortars on our battery will also fire tomorrow to support Xiurong. At the very least, the north gate of Xiurong will be within the range of our heavy mortars. If we solve a problem for them, their stress will be reduced a lot. ”

Chen Yufeng said: "Within a day or two, I still don't worry about Xiurong. Our 1,000 infantry hasn't done it yet. I don't know what Li Zhi's preparations are on, I heard that Li Yan's team has come up. Now is the time to do it. ”

Ouyang He said: "Let's not worry about this matter, let's let Li Zhi do it himself." They're better at it than we are. ”

The regiment leader sent by Yaogang to Xiurong to lead the team was Zhao Jinli, who also followed Chen Yufeng from Lingshui Wharf to Yaogang very early, and was also one of the eight heroes of Lingshui, at this time, he had already taken over Xiurong's defense command. Xiurong Zhixian completely agreed to hand over the command, and those officers and soldiers were even more happy, they knew that it was impossible to hold Xiurong without the Yaogang people, at least they didn't have to worry about eating and drinking with the Yaogang people.

Zhao Jinli discussed with the magistrate and the officers of the official army, "Tomorrow, there will definitely be a fierce battle." We all need to be prepared. The rolling wood and stones on the city will be prepared tonight, and when the thieves attack the city tomorrow, our artillery will also suppress the artillery of the thief army, and we will first use bows and crossbows and arrows to deal with the siege thieves. Our muskets are not to be used for the time being, and when there is danger there, our musketeers will deal with it, because our defense is not a matter of one or two days, and we have to plan for the long term. I don't think there will be too much pressure on the north side of the city tomorrow, because the heavy mortars on the fort in that direction of our kiln post can just cover the north of the city, and we designed the location of the fort with the support of Xiurong in mind. At the same time, with the cover of this fort, we can keep in touch with the kiln gang at any time, and we will get support from the kiln gang at any time. ”

A thousand households in the official army said: "It turns out that you have long considered helping us to defend Xiurong, but it is four or five miles away from us, and your artillery can hit here?" Can you hit it this far? ”

"Don't worry, the fort is exactly four miles away from the north gate, and our heavy mortars have been fired, and all the shooting yuan is set, so there is no problem. I would also like to tell you the news that we have secretly established a telegraph contact with the kiln gang, and we can contact the kiln gang at any time if there is a situation. In case of danger, the kiln will be ready to provide support. Zhao Jinli encouraged the officers and soldiers.

The magistrate asks you, "What is a telegram?" How to contact the kiln gang by telegram? ”

Zhao Jinli explained to them what a telegram is and how to use it.

After listening to Zhao Jinli's words, the magistrate and the officials and soldiers became more confident in defending the city.

Liu Zongmin didn't dare to be careless after agreeing that Li Zicheng must take down Xiurong, and he went back to give his soldiers a while. The generals who lost the battle were all a little depressed, which made Liu Zongmin very unhappy, "You fucking like dead mothers Yes, what are you doing with your heads drooping?" If you want to come up with that, we'll see you on the battlefield tomorrow. ”

A general who has followed Liu Zongmin for many years said: "Master Liu, our defeat today is the defeat of their artillery, their artillery has been pressing our artillery, our artillery can't run away, and when you get to the city, you see their ** as if you don't want silver." I don't want to do something, we don't have enough people to blow them up. ”

"What's wrong? Afraid of death? Liu Zongmin said angrily, in fact, he couldn't think of any way. When I went to King Cai's camp, I just wanted to ask the military advisor if there was any way, but neither the king nor the military advisor mentioned this matter, and Liu Zongmin, although he was upright, also understood that they had no choice, so he didn't ask. Now that his subordinates are asking him like this, he has no choice but to be angry and scold.

The subordinates didn't dare to squeak, and Liu Zongmin asked, "Has our return cannon arrived?" ”

"It's here. However, the return cannon range was too close, and it was difficult to fire if the artillery fire on the city could not be suppressed. I'm afraid that before the return cannon is fired, it will be destroyed by them. One of the generals replied.

"Tomorrow, even if it is a pile of people, it will be piled up in Xiurong City, and the prince will come to watch the battle in person. Tomorrow try to use the cave cart and shield soldiers, so as to reduce some casualties. The focus of our attack was on their gates. Liu Zongmin said.

Both sides have been fully prepared, and on February 18, the 17th year of Chongzhen, a big battle was launched in contouring. The original history is that Li Zicheng's army arrived in Xiurong on the 16th, and the Xiurong army and civilians opened the city to surrender and welcome the Dashun army into the city. At this juncture, history has changed.

A light snow drifted last night, covering up all the traces of the bloody battle the day before. The sky is clear, the sunrise after the snow is very beautiful, the sun is bright red, and the red that reflects the heaven and the earth seems to be the spirit of heaven and earth, knowing that today is a bloody day.

After having breakfast, Xiurong came to the city wall early. Zhao Jinli came to the running position of the heavy mortar. The gunner asked: "Regiment commander, it's time for us to show our hands today, watching others shoot artillery, we feel uncomfortable, and our hands are itchy." ”

"You used binoculars to keep an eye on the command post of the thief army today, and if you found it, you covered me. I don't need you for anything else. Zhao Jinli said.

Liu Zongmin's army used war rice before dawn, and today's meal is enough. The soldiers all know that today is a bloody battle, and maybe this is the last meal. Everyone eats as much as possible, but they can't die, and they don't know when they will eat the next meal.

As soon as the morning dawned, the soldiers of the Dashun Army lined up according to the regulations to come to the position where they started, the north wind blew the flag hunting, the soldiers were all after many battles, they were very familiar with this atmosphere, and they were ready to fight.

The Xiurong defenders and Liu Zongmin are ready, and the Yaogang side is not idle, in the command center, Zhang Zhimu, Chen Yufeng, Ouyang He and Yan Boju are also here to pay attention to the battle that is about to start, Ouyang He has ordered the officers and soldiers on that battery to prepare heavy mortars, and prepare to attack the Dashun army in the north of Xiurong City when needed.

The battle began with an artillery battle, and the defenders of the city kept looking around with binoculars, and their main purpose was to find the artillery positions of the Dashun army. When the lookout post in the city found that the Dashun army had pushed the cannon to the firing position, they immediately reported the location of the artillery position of the Dashun army to the artillery. The artillerymen were given the task of firing the enemy artillery immediately without asking for instructions. So it was the artillery that opened the prelude to the bloody battle of this day.

Liu Zongmin was also worried that his artillery would suffer a big loss, so he arranged the artillery as far apart as possible today. However, the artillery must also be under unified command, and it must not be too dispersed. There was no choice but to form an artillery position with ten red-coated cannons, and the ten cannons pushed forward together.

This time, it was the artillery from the east that pushed the cannon a little faster, and it was discovered by the observation post on Xiurong City first, that is, it was their bad luck first.

Before they pushed the cannon to the preset artillery position, a shell from Xiurong City fell next to them, and the artillerymen knew that this was a check shell, but Li Zicheng's military discipline was extremely strict, and the artillerymen did not dare to dodge, so the next batch of shells fell on the heads of these cannons and artillerymen, and at the same time these cannons were overturned to the side, the artillerymen were also blown up and scattered everywhere.

However, the artillery was bombed in this place, which did not affect the overall advance of Liu Zongmin's army. In front of the advancing procession were three rows of shield soldiers, behind were the cave cart soldiers pushing the cave carts, behind were the archers and musketeers, and there were also artillery men carrying tiger squat cannons and bowl guns. When they were a little far away from Xiurong City, the soldiers marched forward in a neat line. At this time, the artillery battle began, and the shells of both sides were opened. However, when the Dashun army approached the city wall and was ready to charge, the artillery battle stopped. Li Zicheng's artillery had been beaten to the point that it was incapable of counterattacking. At this time, the artillerymen carrying the tiger squat cannon and the bowl mouth gun stopped, put down the cannon and prepared to shoot. However, this distance has entered the shooting range of the crossbow mines, and the city order flag waved, and the crossbow mines pulled their bows and wound them to prepare the crossbow mines, aiming downward, and the next batch of bow mines were shot on the heads of the tiger squat cannons and bowls under the city. The current ballista mines are no longer the kind of ballistaks that need to be ignited in the past, and they have been changed to a firing type, so these ballista mines explode immediately when they fall on the target. Those tiger squat cannons and bowl mouth guns were blown up, some tiger squat cannons loaded with medicine were blown up and detonated at the same time, and the ** brought by the artillery was also detonated, and the continuous explosions were extremely tragic. The sight of limbs and gun barrels being blown up everywhere made the attacking soldiers tremble. According to the habits and tactics of the kiln workers, a batch of fire oil bombs was fired, which ignited everything that could be ignited.

Such a situation is happening almost simultaneously on all four sides of Xiurong City. However, Liu Zongmin's determination to attack did not waver in the slightest, and his brave soldiers did not stop attacking. Soon they were screaming and rushing down to the city.

Zhao Jinli, who commanded the defense in the city, judged according to the situation that the main direction of the Dashun army's attack today was still east. Standing on the east city wall, he didn't care about the soldiers of the Dashun Army who came like a tide, and observed the situation behind this group of soldiers with a telescope, and suddenly he found that there were many people carrying big logs from behind, at first he thought it was a ladder for attacking the city, but after a closer look, the wood carried by these people was very thick, and it could not be a ladder. He observed for a moment, then ordered the watchmen to keep a careful eye on the men carrying the logs. Because the soldiers of the Dashun army have attacked the city and began to set up ladders, the brothers in the city continue to throw stones and **, and continue to shoot with bows and crossbows, but the archers under the city also continue to shoot bows and arrows on the city wall. He decided to organize the crossbow thunder first to suppress these hated crossbowmen in the city.

=======================

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