"Are you ready? When you're ready, fire the gun! "Just after an officer who gave the order gave the order, eighteen two-thousand-pound heavy guns, more than thirty thousand-pound furlong machines and thousand-pound heavy guns, and more than 100 general's guns all started firing. Because of the prestige of the Battle of Nanyuan in Qingyuan, Nanjing did not dare to despise it in the preparations this time, and not only invited a large number of Western gunners from Macao and other places, but also purchased a lot of high-quality black powder from the Dutch and even the Spaniards in the Philippines at a high price.

Although the gap between the quality of gunpowder and saltpeter between the East and the West in this era was not as large as that of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom or the Opium Wars, it was also considerable. With the accumulation of high-quality Western black powder and empirical data that is far more attentive than in experimental testing to the East, the level of artillery skills to strike fixed targets after preparation seems to be far from being comparable to that of ordinary Ming troops.

Under the heavy bombardment of a dozen pounds of heavy bombs flying at two-thirds of the speed of sound, the low breastwork wall, which was like a strong earth enclosure, collapsed under the bombardment of about half an hour, and many places began to crumble.

Although there seemed to be many other low fortresses after blasting through a perimeter, Zhu Xieyuan obviously didn't care too much about this. The canal route and the scale of this dispatch, as well as the excellent gunners, allowed the artillery team to carry out a long bombardment. More than 10,000 rounds of more than seven catties of closed shells destroyed the surface fortifications within a radius of only about a mile, and it seems that it is not a problem at all.

After about two hours of continuous shelling, the heavy guns became hot despite the fact that Western gunpowder had the advantage of not easily heating up the body. The attacking Ming army launched an attack under the cover of shotgun gunners.

However, when the attacking team with shields approached only a dozen or so paces away from the ruins, the sound of guns and cannons suddenly flew from the position around the base of the wall, and the gunpowder that had been prepared for a long time began to throw countless stones into the enemy group.

Because it was a large army attacking during the day, the attacking Ming army was quite cautious, although it did not suffer too many casualties under the heavy rain of bullets, but the hope of taking this seemingly unworthy "earth encirclement" in a short period of time was lost.

Although many of the topsoil ramparts have been blown down, the base of the wall has rarely been damaged by bullets. The firing holes and fortifications along the base of the earthen wall were rarely destroyed.

After the daytime attack was frustrated, Zhu Xieyuan led the soldiers who were good at javelins and melee combat to launch a night attack at night, and soon broke into the "earth encirclement" that had long been damaged by heavy artillery bombardment. However, the five-bucket hunting bow and even the three-eyed gun that came out of the shadows all the time made the attacking skirmishers unable to guard against it. When the attacking enemy forces concentrate their forces to attack, they will encounter an even more terrifying rain of bullets at night.

Such a very favorable defensive battle relieved the previous fear of battle for many new recruits of the Guards and Brave Guards. At the beginning, Zhou Yuji, who was in charge of commanding the operation, also felt that the fortification system designed by Xiao Xuan was quite a bit of a doorway.

However, when this kind of operation continued until the third day, and some battalion officers began to report that most of the gunpowder and ammunition were consumed, Zhou Yuji and even Sun Yingyuan and others felt tremendous pressure. Because the rate of ammunition consumption far exceeded expectations, according to the original assumption, the 40,000 or 50,000 concentrated defense forces should be able to hold out for at least a year and a half. Whether or not you can hold on for half a month seems to be a big problem. After all, there is a clear difference between these newly formed infantry units and the veterans of the former Guards Battalion and the Brave Guard Battalion. In addition to relying more on fortifications and gunpowder in combat, there is also a clear gap in the efficiency of use.

Of course, more importantly, the attacking enemy seems to be clearly different from those encountered before, knowing how to use formation and elite reasonably, and always pulling out the battle when the attack is not effective. In the three-day battle, although the total number of enemy troops killed and wounded reached about 10,000, the elite forces of the enemy army eliminated seemed to account for only a small proportion.

At this time, some of Zhou Yuji's cronies in the Yongwei camp also began to waver: "General, if you encounter the most unfavorable situation, do you have to make other plans?" At least, I really can't be loyal to the perverse new emperor... ”

In fact, these days, whether it is Sun Yingyuan or Zhou Yuji, they have also spent their hearts in torment, and they don't know how to face such a king who is forcing rebellion against the world. It is conceivable that for such an emperor, it is difficult to say whether he can get even the historical evaluation of Fan Zeng. Today's Emperor Chongzhen, some of his actions are simply offending the world's magnates and even scholars to death. Don't say it's a defeat, it's a temporary victory, and I'm afraid it won't last long.

However, after thinking about it for a long time, Zhou Yuji still planned to resist until the ammunition was exhausted before making plans. Because he was a person not far from the emperor's side, he heard a lot of rumors from Empress Zhou. This new emperor used to be completely familiar with military affairs, but suddenly he had a ghost-like achievement, and his temperament also changed greatly, maybe it was really a godsend?

Li Zicheng's subordinates, who relied more on bows and arrows to fight against the white soldiers, did not have such big concerns, but they also felt that it was a great pity that this kind of defensive operation was shrunk and could not capture much. Zhou Yuji, who was in charge of the command, was still too conservative.

When the news of the shortage of gunpowder and ammunition began to spread among the defenders for some unknown reason, the morale of the various units of the New Army began to be restless. Because it is obvious: if you persist for at least more than half a year as stated in the previous mission, it is very likely that these tens of thousands of passive defense teams will be destroyed.

However, just as the defense of the canal fortifications near Linqing continued until the seventh day, the increasingly intensive attacks suddenly became much less. Some experienced officers were also able to judge that the enemy soldiers trapped around were to a large extent suspicious of the enemy's tactics.

"Could it be that it is to lure our army into war and then plan to do a war of annihilation?" Although there were not many casualties and losses in the previous battle, the new officers and soldiers of the brigades who were conservative by nature under the influence of Xiao Xuan did not seem to have any intention of going into battle easily at this time.

After Xiao Xuan hesitated in the capital for a few days, he finally decided to temporarily abandon the plan to defend the capital with all his might, because he was really not sure that he would be able to defeat the world with the power of one city. If nothing else, this mentality of clearly showing one's own weakness will have a great negative impact on the entire army. Thinking of Nurhachi and even some experience in modern warfare, Xiao Xuan finally decided to start a decisive battle with the Ming army north along the canal in the Linqing area. Only by taking advantage of the fact that the Jiannu in the northwest, the nine borders, and the eastern part of Liaodong, and even outside the Guan, could a major victory be achieved and the confidence of the newly established troops could be established.

(End of chapter)