Chapter 62 The Bloody Attack on the Kiln Gang and the Entry of Key Officers

March 3, Yaogang. The weather was sunny and breezy.

Yesterday at noon, the ice and snow melted somewhat, and then froze into an ice crust overnight, and under the rising sun, it was reflected in a dazzling light.

More than 200,000 officers and men of Dashun had eaten their war meals before dawn, lined up neatly, and under the leadership of the officers, came to their respective offensive starting positions. Before the battle, the whole team suddenly quieted down, and the heavens and the earth seemed to be very depressed all of a sudden, making people dare not breathe.

The soldiers on the front line of Yaogang also had their war meals early, and they all hid in the shelter one by one, waiting to enter their own combat positions in the trenches.

Today, General Liu Zongmin is specifically responsible for the offensive in the south, General Yuan Zongdi and General Guoyi Liu Tichun are in charge of the offensive in the west, and Li Zicheng, Prime Minister Niu Jinxing, and military advisor Song Xiance personally command the formation. The Dashun army is determined to take the kiln gang today. If they knew, the people of Yaogang already knew that they were going to attack today, but the shopping mall was still open, and the factory was still working, Li Zicheng didn't know what they would think. However, last night, Li Zicheng saw that the street lights of the Yaogang people were still lit as usual at night.

As soon as the hour came, Song Xiance gave an order, and the gunner lit the fire twist of a red-coated cannon, and the "boom" cannon sounded, sending out a signal for an all-out attack.

In this attack, the Dashun army made careful preparations, and the three offensive directions of Xiurong, Fort and Yaogang began at the same time. With the sound of the war drums of "Dong Dong", the soldiers of the Dashun Army rushed to their respective offensive formations at the same time. Song Xiance originally thought that he might be shelled by the Yaogang people at this time, so at the meeting of military preparations, he told the generals that they should not mess up when encountering artillery fire to hit the formation, whether it was when they were in line or when they charged, the people in front were knocked down by artillery fire. The latter should be made up immediately, and those who cowered and did not forgive.

This time, however, the Kiln Gang did not open fire, although part of their formation was between the fort and the Kiln Gang, and both the Kiln Gang and the artillery fire on the fort could hit them.

Regarding the density of the attacking formation, Liu Zongmin said that if the personnel are too dense, they will be injured too badly by artillery fire, but if the density is not large, the people who go up are not enough to fight the kiln gangmen. Li Zicheng said at the time: "Remember, no matter how many people die this time, you must rush forward with all your might." We want to be like the tide and submerge the position of the kiln gang at once. In fact, this sentence requires that regardless of the dead or wounded, a dense formation should be used to charge.

The reason why the people of Yaogang did not fire the cannon was because Ouyang He's request was that this time they would take advantage of Li Zicheng's desperate psychology and try to inflict maximum damage on him at once, and they did not fire the cannon in order to hit more people. Ouyang He had already led people to climb to the roof of the financial center in Yaogang, and looked far away to observe the surrounding situation. Because the financial center of Yaogang is built on the earthen hill of Yaogang, the seat here can overlook the situation around Yaogang, today's weather is very good, and you can see the surrounding situation very clearly with high-powered telescopes. There was no cannon fire on the kiln gang. However, the artillery on the fort side was fired first, because the distance of the Dashun army's attack here was close, and the fort did not care about others, and fired the artillery first to meet the enemy. Then Xiurong's side also fired. This made the atmosphere on the entire battlefield suddenly tense.

Li Zicheng, Niu Jinxing, and Song Xiance knew that in this way, it would work on the containment of Xiurong and the fort. Due to the large scope of the attack on Yaogang's side, the entire wide offensive team has only now been lined up. With the change in the rhythm of the war drums, the attack of the entire southern and western Dashun army of Yaogang began.

In front of the Dashun army were still shield soldiers, and they lined up in a neat queue when attacking, and they looked well-trained. Ouyang He, who was standing upstairs in the financial center, said to Qin Peng beside him: "The Dashun army organized an attack of tens of thousands of people today, you can see that they are busy but not chaotic, whether they are gathering in formation or starting to attack, you can see that they have undergone long-term and strict training. It can also be seen from here that their military discipline is very strict. It's a pity they met us. Ha ha! ”

The Dashun army's attack this time, unlike in the past, every time they advanced, under the cover of the shield bearers, those soldiers carrying firewood and grass would stop and light some firewood and grass first, and then advance, unlike before, they all went to a certain position to light firewood and grass together. Ouyang He looked at it and said, "Inform the front, pay attention to the Dashun army will open fire soon, pay attention to the anti-artillery." Tell Li Wei to pay attention to the artillery positions of the Dashun army. ”

It really made Ouyang He right, Song Xiance asked the soldiers to have a little firewood and grass earlier this time just to cover their red-clothed cannons. This time, the Dashun army would light a row of firewood and grass every time it advanced, and soon the battlefield would be filled with smoke.

The lookouts sent by Li Wei to the top of the water tower could not see clearly behind the smoke with high-powered binoculars. When the soldiers of the Dashun army attacked more than a hundred meters in front of the first barbed wire fence in the kiln gang, the artillery of the Dashun army opened fire first.

Although the artillery of the Dashun army covered their mouths and noses with white cloths, they were still choked by their own smoke and coughed. When they finally got the order to open the cannon, they lit the cannon twist with torches. The red-clothed cannon roared and shot *** at the position of the kiln people. Originally, the shooting accuracy of the round shells of the redcoat cannon was not high. In addition, in the smoke, they could only aim roughly, and only a small number of shells fell on the position of the Yaogang people, and many shells hit the streets of Yaogang. The shells still caused some casualties. However, after the red-coated cannon fired, it caused air disturbances, and also caused smoke disturbances in the sky above them, and the observation posts on the water tower were being scolded by Li Wei in a daze, this time they could seize the opportunity and quickly report the location of several targets. Li Wei immediately assigned tasks to several heavy mortar positions. These calibrated targets can be checked and shot according to the chart. The heavy mortar finally spoke, and soon the heavy mortar shell exploded with great power, blowing up the red-coated artillery position of the Dashun army, and at the same time blowing up the smoke that shrouded the artillery position. The observer lookouts quickly reported the results of the battle, and Li Wei once again ordered to cover again. This artillery bombardment completely solved the artillery threat of the Dashun army, and also made Li Zicheng, who was on the front line, feel the power of heavy mortars.

At the same time as the two sides were engaged in an artillery battle, the soldiers of the Dashun Army had already begun to accelerate their charge, and at the same time, under the cover of the shield, the tiger squat cannon also began to fire at the Yaogang position. However, fifty meters in front of the first barbed wire fence they rushed to the kiln, there were explosions in many places in the ground within a distance of 50 meters to 200 meters. This is an anti-infantry jumping mine, twenty-five kilograms **, wrapped in a large number of prefabricated fragments. With the earth-shattering sound of explosions, the soldiers of the Dashun Army within 50 meters of each jumping thunder were either killed or wounded. This kind of thunder jumping was remotely ignited by the soldiers of the kiln post with wires. When the explosion is blown up, a two-meter-long cable is nailed to the ground, and when the thunder body reaches a height of two meters, the thunder body is detonated by fire, and a large number of cast iron prefabricated fragments are thrown out, and the lethality is very amazing.

Those soldiers who are responsible for detonating **, I heard the people sent by Li Wei say that this thing is too powerful, and you must bow your head in the trench after pressing ***. But these soldiers in charge of detonating it felt that it should be okay to be so far away, and besides, they detonated it themselves and didn't look at the effect of the explosion. So many of them, after pressing the detonator, did not lower their heads as required, but poked their heads out to see the effect. However, more than 20 kilograms** exploded within a distance of less than 100 meters in the nearest place, and the explosion still shook people's hearts, and then the shock wave of the explosion sandwiched the gravel and soil clods, which made these detonators who did not bow their heads as required suffer. Almost all of them were thrown down in the trenches.

At the same time as the anti-infantry jumping mine was detonated, hundreds of mortars on the kiln position began to roll and cover fire in a range of 500 meters to 1,000 meters. Li Wei's heavy mortars, after hitting the artillery of the Dashun army, first covered the fort for two rounds, and then began to intercept and shoot at the Dashun army, which was about 2,000 meters away from the first barbed wire fence in the kiln gang.

The shooting of the Yaogang artillery was different from the past, and the number of artillery participating in the battle was greatly increased. Li Wei's heavy mortar positions were divided into two places, one west and one south, and each position had 50 heavy mortars. A whole vacuum was cut out of the continuous offensive formation of the Dashun army.

The density of mortars equipped by the kiln gang people to the front line is even more very high, and it was originally intended to be equipped with artillery according to the standard after the expansion of the army, but this time it was all deployed to the front line at one time. Their artillery bombardment cut out a vacuum in the formation of the Dashun army's attack.

The soldiers who were not killed by the thunder, after a period of dizzy time to recover, still did not understand what was going on, how could something jump out from under the field and explode, and the explosion would be so powerful, but they understood one thing, that is, they had to rush forward before they died. Soon, the undead little leader led these brave soldiers who did not die to rush forward.

At this time, the kiln soldiers and reserve soldiers who were waiting for a long time finally had a chance to shoot.

On the front line, Liu Yun's infantry was jointly deployed with the reserve soldiers, that is, the infantry and reserve soldiers were mixed together in the trenches. Although the reservists have been trained for a long time, and they are all equipped with muskets, they have never been on the battlefield, and the subjects, intensity, and time of training cannot be compared with the infantry, not to mention that the officers in the infantry are all veterans of Yaogang, and they all followed the Yaogang caravan to the north and south, fought the Mongolian cavalry, destroyed the Manchu iron cavalry, and were terrible. Their confidence was quickly passed on to the recruits. It also brings a kind of soul to this army. The reservists said that when they looked at the eyes of the regular soldiers, they were different from those of our reservists. What's more, in the regular army, every squad leader and deputy squad leader are equipped with automatic rifles. The reservists said that it was a terrible thing, and it was said that they could pull the trigger and shoot a bunch of bullets at once, and this rifle could shoot far and accurately, and the sound was much quieter than that of a musket.

Most of these Dashun soldiers who rushed to the first row were holding shields, and they would feel a little safe with them. What they didn't know was that no one in the kiln people knew how to shoot bows and arrows. The shields in their hands may be useful against bows and crossbows, but the soldiers of the kiln gang shoot at the shields specifically to hit those shields, and after those shields are pierced one by one, the bullets will not hesitate to shoot into the body of the shield-bearer. These soldiers of the Dashun Army were not shot, and if they rushed into the first section of barbed wire, they would also be blown over by the ** under their feet. Due to the distance of 50 meters, the accuracy of shooting with muskets and rifles was almost very high, so almost all the soldiers of the Dashun Army were killed at a distance of about 50 meters.

The artillerymen of the kiln gang will also fight for a while and rest for a while, but the officers and soldiers of the Dashun army all know that Li Zicheng personally supervised the formation in the back, and they did not dare to hesitate at all. Li Wei's heavy mortars not only had to shoot at the soldiers of the Dashun Army attacking Yaogang, but also supported the fort at the request of the defenders of the fort at any time. But now the density of heavy mortar fire is much higher than before, basically, two rows of shells pass by, and the battery will shout ready.

Due to the cooperation of heavy mortars and 60 mortars, the number of soldiers of the Dashun army who can rush to the front of the kiln gang is always controlled, and the soldiers on the front line of the kiln gang have always been able to shoot very calmly, although occasionally the crossbowmen of the Dashun army have caused a little trauma to the soldiers of the kiln, but it is basically not very serious. Because the soldiers of Yaogang all wore helmets and front and rear chest armor made of old rattan on Taihang Mountain. Because when he fought the Mongolian cavalry, Zhang Zhimu realized that if his people had armor, he would not have so many casualties that time, so he paid great attention to the protection of the soldiers.

However, Li Zicheng's Dashun army adopted the tactic of crowds regardless of casualties, and a group of people died and then a group came up, which did cause a lot of psychological pressure on the soldiers in Yaogang. It's really a bit of a murderous and murderous softness. The commanders at the front spotted the problem and rotated the soldiers in the second trench with the soldiers in the first. Let everyone go to the front to kill the enemy and make meritorious contributions. However, up to now, there are not many soldiers of the Dashun Army who can rush into the first barbed wire fence within 50 meters from the kiln gang. Soon they were about fifty meters away, stacking a human wall.

Ouyang He had already returned to the command center, and he was saying, "Why hasn't Li Zicheng's cavalry appeared yet, something is wrong." They boasted a million troops and 600,000 cavalry. Don't you dare to use the cavalry? ”

Before the words fell, the phone call ahead reported that Li Zicheng's cavalry had been dispatched.

Yan Boju joked: "Mr. Ouyang, if there is anything bad in the future, don't say it, you will come as soon as you say it." ”

Chen Yufeng said: "Old thing, what you said is not right. Li Zicheng's cavalry is here, which should be a good thing. At least we can eat horse meat tonight. ”

Ouyang He suddenly remembered and said, "Mr. Zhang said, Li Zicheng's cavalry appeared to inform him." ”

Chen Yufeng said: "Zhimu and Qiu Laodong's family talked there early in the morning, I don't know how the conversation went? Go tell him the show is on. ”

It turned out that after Qiu Laodong's family talked to Zhang Zhimu last time, he had been very conflicted. He admires these people very much, and firmly believes that what they want to do will be successful. However, what he said to Zhang Zhimu that he would divide the land equally in the future was not very acceptable. Because he is a big landowner, his family has thousands of hectares of land after several generations, let him divide his land, although it is, people say it is a ransom, but it is difficult to accept it in his heart. However, Zhang Zhimu said that if the world wants to get out of this repeated circle, it is really impossible not to do this. I know the truth, but how to do it is another matter. So during this time, Qiu Laodong's heart has been very entangled, he wants to participate in the career of the kiln gang people very much, but there are contradictions in his heart, very depressed. However, this period of time in Yaogang also gave him time to understand the life of the Yaogang people, whether it was what he saw, or what his children and grandchildren came back to tell him, he felt that the life of the Yaogang people was really good, and everyone here was alive and well. It's better than their so-called big families in Yuncheng Jiezhou. His grandchildren also felt that this grandfather was different from before, he used to always have a black face, and the children did not dare to talk to him, but now the grandfather is always smiling, and the bold grandson also dares to ask the grandfather for copper coins to buy delicious food, which was unimaginable before.

When Yaogang was about to face the big war, although Yaogang was still singing and dancing, Qiu Laodong felt the taste before the war, and after thinking about it almost all night, he finally felt that he was ridiculous, and he thought it through at once. But I also broke out in a cold sweat, if I want to pass a little later, after the battle is over, and then talk about it, it will make people feel that they are afraid of failure, and wait to see the results before they want to participate in others. So the old club slept in a daze for a while, and as soon as it was dawn, he came to the command center to wait for Zhang Zhimu.

Zhang Zhimu knew that there was going to be a big battle today, so he got up and told Xiaoqing and Xiaohu that they were not allowed to stay at home today, so they came directly to the command center.

Seeing Zhang Zhimu coming, Qiu Laodong stood up and said, "Virtuous nephew, what I want to tell you today is that I have already figured it out. ”

Zhang Zhimu nodded and said, "Old club, please here." He led his old club to a secret room in the command center.

After the two sat down, Zhang Zhimu said: "Old club, I know that you will have the day to figure it out, and we have been waiting for you." ”

Old Uncle Qiu was a little embarrassed and said: "Virtuous nephew, don't blame me for not being decisive, this matter is too big for me." ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "Where, if you don't think carefully, we really don't dare to accept you." There are so many ups and downs in your life that it is not normal for you to decide such a big thing without careful consideration. ”

Qiu Laodong said: "There are many people in the world, and you are the only one who can talk to me like this." Knowing you in this life is my creation, and from now on, you should not treat me as an outsider. ”

Zhang Zhimu smiled and said, "Actually, we haven't treated you as an outsider for a long time. It's just that we have spoken out today, and we are comrades who are struggling. Some time ago, we held a preparatory meeting for the founding of the party, and we stipulated that all parties within the party should call each other comrades. ”

Qiu Laodong said: "After that, I am also a comrade. Ha ha! ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "Yes! With you joining the old club, our work in Jinnan will be much easier in the future, not to mention the salt gang. With you in the lead, our land policy is much easier. ”

Qiu Laodong said: "I think the affairs of Jinnan and Jinzhong are easy to handle, but the difficult ones are the things of Qinshui." The principals there are several major families, they all have their own arms, and the power of the imperial court has limited influence there. If we were to carry out land reform there, it would be very difficult. ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "The land policy is still a consensus within our party, and as for how to carry it out, we still need political strategies. First of all, we must set up our own government, and we will take responsibility for the foreign fight against thieves and thieves, and then we must disarm them. If they don't obey, we will deal with them with arms, and we haven't fought their castles. When some things are useless, there must be a thunderbolt. ”

The more the two of them talked, the more speculative they became, and they didn't pay attention to the heat of the fight outside. Until Chen Yufeng sent someone to inform Zhang Zhimu that Li Zicheng's cavalry had attacked. Zhang Zhimu and Qiu Laodong came to the command center hall together.

Chen Yufeng asked: "What are you talking about, old and young, for a long time." ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "Let me tell you a good news. We, the old Qiu family, have finally figured it out and announced today that we have officially joined the ranks. ”

The command center was jubilant, and they all said, "Okay, you should have done this a long time ago!" ”

At this time, the guards outside the door came in and reported, "General Ningde is here." ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "Please! ”

General Ningde came to the command center, saw that everyone here was smiling, and asked, "There is a rumbling cannon outside, what are you doing here?" ”

Zhang Zhimu said: "In the team of our kiln gang people, we have added such a person as Qiu Laodong. Lord Ning, don't you say we should be happy? ”

When General Ningde was in better health, Zhang Zhimu went to see him a lot, and talked about a lot of things, and basically didn't hide the matter of Yaogang from him. However, Ningde's idea of being a loyal minister is very stubborn, but he does not object to Zhang Zhimu's proposition, and he also pays a lot of attention to Zhang Zhimu. Zhang Zhimu knew that Ningde wanted to stay in his old age.

However, what Zhang Zhimu didn't expect was that after listening to Zhang Zhimu's introduction to Qiu's old owner to join the team of Yaogang, he said: "I also want to say that I want to join you today." ”

The people in the command center all stood up and welcomed General Ningde.

Chen Yufeng said: "Today is really a happy day. But let's all care about Li Zicheng's cavalry first. ”

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