Jining City

Fang Yuan took the initiative to give up Jining Wei, as well as the defense of Jining City's periphery, and the 120,000 Ming army led by Sun Chuanting besieged Jining City, and even the waterway to the Grand Canal was blocked by the warships sent by Zheng Sen.

For 15 days in a row, the 120,000 Ming army launched wave after wave of attacks on the three gates of Jining City. And the guns of Zheng Sen's battleship also approached the front of the water gate, and bombarded the defenders on the city wall from a distance.

When the war went on to this stage of life and death, Fang Yuan would not hold the psychological burden of not being able to use chemical weapons, and decided to use white phosphorus bombs to annihilate the Ming army besieging the city.

In the first wave of counterattack offensives, Fang Yuan sent drones at night in accordance with the usual tactics of drones, carrying white phosphorus bombs to the Ming army camp to carry out a bomb sneak attack.

But Fang Yuan obviously underestimated the changeable situation on the battlefield and underestimated the wisdom of the ancients.

As early as in Jinan Mansion, Sun Chuanting received information from Bai Guangen about how Pingshanwei was lost, and he had already fully studied the tactics of throwing white phosphorus bombs by drones. A very targeted defense against the air superiority of the UAV was carried out.

Sun Chuanting set up two layers of defense line for early warning drone sneak attacks one mile and a distance of 100 zhang outside the barracks, and built 50 arrow towers that could be used for defense.

The archery tower can climb high and look into the distance, and each archery tower is also arranged to be guarded by five sergeants, and there is also a gong that rings gold. As long as the sentry on the arrow platform finds the trace of the drone attack, he can immediately sound the alarm and notify the barracks.

Fang Yuan took advantage of the night to send five hundred Xuanjia sergeants to escort thirty drones for a tentative attack. When the drone just flew to the arrow platform, the sentries of the Ming army immediately discovered the enemy situation and sounded a warning.

Liu Yiliang, the commander of the Xuanjia Army Infantry Battalion, who commanded this sneak attack, saw the Ming army Mingjin and knew that if he wanted to send drones to attack the Ming army camp, he had to clear these arrow towers one by one. If these arrows were pulled out one by one, reinforcements from the Ming army camp would have already arrived.

Liu Yiliang thought about it, but the sneak attack had failed, so he took advantage of the arrival of Ming reinforcements and went back to the city in the night.

Fang Yuan saw that the trick of sneak attack at night did not work, so he thought of a second method, that is, when the Ming army was attacking the city, he directly sent a drone carrying white phosphorus bombs to fly over the Ming army to drop bombs.

But this move is still within Sun Chuanting's calculations.

Sun Chuanting specially selected 500 elite firecrackers in the new-style Ming army, divided into five teams, each team of 100 people, all equipped with firearms with a range of up to 20 zhang high, and shot down the drone with the intensive firepower of a team of 100 people.

A team of five hundreds, twelve hours, took turns on duty to prepare for a sudden sneak attack.

When the drones of the Xuanjia Army flew out of the city, and just dropped a wave of white phosphorus bombs, the Ming army's firecrackers immediately fired a hundred guns in unison, shooting down two drones at one time.

Jing Jie, who commanded the defense of the city, saw that the situation was not good, and immediately ordered the drone to drop bombs and return immediately. In this wave of offensive, seven drones were lost, but less than twenty white phosphorus bombs were thrown, and less than a hundred Ming troops were burned.

Jing Jie immediately went to report back to Fang Yuan, this kind of consumable play was completely worth the loss. Fang Yuan weighed the pros and cons for a while, and immediately gave up the tactic of throwing white phosphorus bombs from the drone.

Since drones could not be used to airdrop, Fang Yuan thought of a third attack method, which was to use grenades instead.

Of course, because the smoke of the white phosphorus bomb is poisonous, it must not be used in the case of headwinds, otherwise the poisonous smoke will drift into Jining City downwind, and the Xuanjia army will be cocooned and bound by itself.

Fang Yuan ordered the officers who were in charge of observing the weather to judge the direction of the wind every day, and according to different wind directions, use white phosphorus bombs at the downwind gate to deal with the Ming army besieging the city.

For three days in a row, the Ming army braved the artillery bombardment on the city wall, and when it attacked under the city wall, it had not yet begun to erect siege ladders, but suddenly found that the defenders of the city smashed down the white phosphorus bomb, and the white phosphorus bomb spontaneously ignited when it landed, igniting the gunpowder and causing a violent explosion.

The ten siege ladders were not completely destroyed, and countless Ming troops were burned to death, and even more, after the explosion, the poisonous smoke still fluttered in the wind, sweeping the entire Ming army troops besieging the city. The Ming army could not stand the erosion of the poisonous smoke and could only retreat one after another.

The Ming army, which inhaled poisonous smoke and retreated to the barracks, still vomited, had a fever, and lost most of its combat effectiveness.

Within three days, the Ming army besieging the city suffered at least 3,000 casualties from the white phosphorus bomb attack, which can be said to have reached the level of the demonic art of the Xuanjia army.

Sun Chuanting made a little observation on the battlefield, and found that the Xuanjia Army's use of white phosphorus bombs was a smooth city gate, and he also made changes in siege tactics.

The Ming army no longer attacked the city on three sides, but chose to attack the city with a tailwind gate, and did not attack the city gate against the wind, so as not to be burned by white phosphorus bombs.

Fang Yuan and Sun Chuanting after a few tricks back and forth, but still fell behind, the drone threw white phosphorus bombs, and the methods of throwing white phosphorus bombs were all restrained by Sun Chuanting, and the white phosphorus bombs were temporarily useless, and the Xuanjia army could no longer rely on advanced technology to opportunistically, so they could only face the onslaught of the Ming army head-on.

For five consecutive days, the casualties on both the offensive and defensive sides were further rising.

With the gradual accumulation of the corpses of the Ming army under the city, the subsequent Ming army attacking the city can pile up the corpses on the wall, cover them, and shoot at each other with the Xuanjia army on the city wall. Or use the mountains of corpses as stepping stones to attack the city walls.

The situation on the battlefield has gradually progressed from the previous situation in which the Xuanjia army has the upper hand to the direction that is favorable to the Ming army.

At the beginning of the siege, the casualty ratio of both sides was 1:4; Nearly a month into the siege, the casualty ratio between the two sides had shrunk to 1:2. Although the Ming army still suffered heavy casualties, losing at least 10,000 or 20,000 people, the battle losses of the Xuanjia army also reached 8,000.

As the war progressed, the stock of lead bullet and gunpowder in the city was also decreasing, and according to Jing Jie's estimate, the amount of gunpowder in the city would be exhausted after half a month at most.

Whether it's artillery or the Xuanjia Divine Gun, all need the support of gunpowder. Moreover, the sergeants of the Xuanjia Army have long been accustomed to the combat method of hot weapons. If there is no gunpowder, the combat power of the Xuanjia Army will drop by at least fifty percent, and the battle loss ratio will be further reduced to less than 1:2, and Jining City will really be in danger.

Sun Chuanting was still driving the Ming army to attack non-stop, without the slightest sign of stopping, and even more fierce than before. And the gunpowder consumption of the Xuanjia Army has increased significantly. After five more days of fighting between the two sides, the gunpowder of the Xuanjia Army was already stretched thin, and it could no longer be supplied in unlimited quantities.

Jing Jie could only carry out a limited ration of gunpowder in the whole army, and Sun Chuanting's most fierce siege gate was only rationed with a sufficient amount of gunpowder, and the remaining city gates with a slightly weaker offensive were mainly shot with bows and arrows, supplemented by firearms.

Sun Chuanting, who supervised the battle outside the city, keenly discovered the change of the attack method in the city, from the initial all-firearms combat to today's firearms, both bows and arrows, which fully proved the shortage of gunpowder in the city. Sun Chuanting was overjoyed, as long as the gunpowder of the Xuanjia Army was exhausted, there would be hope of taking Jining City.

He divided the remaining 100,000 Ming troops into ten teams, attacked the city for one day, rested for two days, and took turns to go into battle to maintain sufficient physical strength and continue to increase the high-pressure offensive against the defenders in the city.

At the official office in Jining City, Fang Yuan was reviewing the casualties of the sergeants counted by Ma Yishan.

Before the war, there were 50,000 soldiers in the city, but now 5,000 have been killed and more than 8,000 wounded, almost a third of which have been lost. Moreover, this loss is still on the premise that there is sufficient gunpowder, if the gunpowder is insufficient, it is estimated that the loss will be doubled.

Jing Jie strode into the Chinese military camp and reported, "Boss, the gunpowder in the city will run out if it lasts until tomorrow at most, and we must take countermeasures as soon as possible." ”

He was really afraid of something, Fang Yuan was very headache when he heard this bad news, and his expression became more and more solemn. Before, he was worried about the shortage of military rations, but now it seems that gunpowder is consumed faster than military rations, how can this battle be fought?

Liu Yiliang also hurried in, and said with a panicked expression, "Regent, the Ming army has set up an artillery position in front of the barracks and is ready to bombard!" ”

Fang Yuan was startled, and secretly screamed, "It's wrong!" Fell for Sun Chuanting's plan! ”

From the beginning of the war to the present, the Ming army rarely uses artillery, and has been driving the Ming army to attack the city with flesh and blood. Now it seems that Sun Chuanting deliberately used the large number of casualties of the Ming army to deplete the gunpowder reserves in the city, and after the gunpowder in the city was exhausted, he would send artillery troops to attack the city, and he could break the city in one fell swoop.

Cold sweat oozed from Fang Yuan's forehead, and an ominous premonition arose in his mind, this time was really a repeat of the battle of Guandu? Maybe he was even worse than Yuan Shao, at least Yuan Shao hadn't been killed or captured alive in Guandu, and even if Fang Yuan wanted to escape at this time, it would be too late.