With Ma Jiyuan's permission, Zhang Liang called a pipe belt and asked him to start preparing for the test gun.

The Navy's 21-pounder cannon is a naval gun, and the distance in naval naval battles is within one mile, and now the Xu Ning Gate in Yangzhou City is three miles away from here, and I don't know if the naval cannon can hit it. However, the casting process of the naval cannon is similar to that of the army gun, so there should be no problem.

Because it is a test gun, in order to ensure that it can hit far, the gunner of this gun is led by the gun commander to load three medicine bags, you must know that the three medicine bags are the charge of the chain bullet in the naval battle, which is used to ensure the range of the chain bullet, but now in order to score in the first shot, I don't care about those.

The gunner first put the gunpowder bag into the gun chamber, then put a shell the size of a watermelon into the gun chamber, poured the ignition powder into the fire door, let the gun retreat into the gun position, adjusted the distance angle, and waited for the commander's order. The commander of the gun asked the commander how to adjust the firing distance, but the commander only said that with the maximum distance, the commander of the gun could not command the gunner to adjust the gun to a 60-degree angle.

Seeing that Zhang Liang looked at Ma Jiyuan after the loading, Ma Jiyuan nodded, and Zhang Liang shouted: "Fire!" ”

With Zhang Liang's shout, the gunner put the torch into the ignition door to ignite the ignition powder, and ignited the particle powder inside the barrel, and the 30-kilogram shell left the barrel under the impetus of gunpowder gas. After the shell left the barrel, the gunner quickly stepped forward to clean the debris inside the barrel with a wet bristle brush, and the others used the wet quilt to cool the barrel, and repeated the reloading step in the next step, waiting for the order to fire the next shell.

The gunners were busy, but the attention of Zhang Liang, Ma Jiyuan and others was on the shell, and the black * gunpowder was not powerful enough, so they could still see the trajectory of the shell. I saw a black projectile flying in the direction of Yangzhou City after it was discharged, but it did not hit the city wall, but crossed the city wall and entered the city, and it seemed that it was five miles away.

Ma Jiyuan was shocked to see that a cannon shot was five miles away, you must know that the cannons in the Ming Dynasty that could hit five miles away were all 10,000 catties of Hongyi cannons, and each of them had a title, what kind of general, but it can be said to be a weapon of the country, this kind of thing is placed on the city wall of the Beijing Division, used to protect the safety of the Beijing Division. Now it is shocking to think that an ordinary artillery piece in the navy can hit such a long distance with less than 3,000 catties.

Ma Jiyuan was overjoyed after he came over, and said to Zhang Liang: "General Zhang, you guys fought well, the cannon just now has already entered Yangzhou City, try another shot!" ”

At Zhang Liang's signal, a second cannon was fired, and this cannon hit it very accurately, directly hitting the city wall, knocking off more than a dozen city bricks, revealing the rammed earth inside.

Ma Jiyuan saw that the effect was good, and nodded again and again: "General Zhang, let's start!" All the artillery will fire at me at this distance and blast open the city wall of Yangzhou! ”

For a time, the cannon outside the southern city of Yangzhou rumbled, and fifty heavy artillery began to bombard Xu Ningmen.

Ma Jiyuan outside the city was elated, and Hong Chengchou in the city was like a mourner. The first shell hit the city and destroyed a house, killing a few people, which was nothing, but the distance of the cannon was terrifying, five miles away.

The Qing army also has its own firearms battalion, since Kong Youde surrendered after the Manchu Qing also learned to make red-coated cannons, but this kind of knock-off goods and the Ming Dynasty is still a little worse, 5,000 catties can only hit two miles away, but to ensure accuracy to shoot at close range.

At first, Hong Chengchou saw that the artillery of the Ming army was five miles away, and he still had a fluke attitude, thinking that it was the same as the artillery of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and the accuracy was not good. But who thought that the second shot hit the city wall, this terrifying accuracy made Hong Chengchou dumbfounded.

This is also no way, the Manchu Qing Dynasty and Zhu Hongsan's army building ideas are completely different, and the Manchu Qing Dynasty is still in the ancient feudal military thinking, thinking that it is enough to have weapons. But Zhu Hongsan's side is different, especially in the navy, the commander of each artillery gun must have hundreds of rounds of shooting experience. On the one hand, he is not familiar with the equipment, and on the other hand, he is a veteran fed with gunpowder, and this battle is really impossible to fight!

Outside the city, the Ming army followed the order of the commander Zhang Liang, fifty heavy artillery began to fire and bombard the city wall of Yangzhou, for a time the gun smoke on the fort was filled, the cannon rumbled, and the city wall here in Xu Ning Gate of Yangzhou began to expose the rammed earth.

Hong Chengchou, who was standing on the Anjiang Gate, sighed secretly in his heart when he saw this situation, he knew that the fall of Yangzhou City was not far away.

Hong Chengchou called over a few of his generals and said: "Everyone has seen it, the Ming army's artillery is sharp, the governor estimates that the city wall will not hold on for a few days, Wang Shixuan, you take 10,000 people to the vicinity of Xu Ningmen, and demolish the surrounding houses to prevent the Ming army from using the terrain to rush in after the city wall is breached, Zhu Shichang, you take 10,000 people to get ready, once the Ming army attacks, you must push the Ming army out as soon as possible!" ”

After Hong Chengchou finished speaking, he looked at some of the civil officials behind him, such as Zhou Boda, the governor of Jiangning, who came back from Jiangnan, Zhao Fuxing, the political envoy of Jiangnan, Zhang Wenheng, the envoy of Jiangnan, and Zhang Xi, the envoy of the two Huai capitals, Hong Chengchou said to these civil officials: "Colleagues, now that the city is about to be destroyed, the governor is determined to die to repay the great favor of the regent, I don't know which colleague can go with the governor?" ”

Those civil officials are not stupid, seeing Hong Chengchou ask this, he knows that he is ready to die, but who wants to die with him? But if you don't express your stance at this time, disaster will come immediately!

Zhou Boda, the governor of Jiangning, first said: "Your Excellency, rest assured, our Wenchen is deeply favored by the emperor, and naturally we will share the hardships with the adults!" Several other civil officials also expressed their attitudes, asking Hong Chengchou to rest assured.

Hong Chengchou is old and sophisticated, and he knows that these guys are doing one thing in front of them and one thing behind their backs, and now they are going to cut off their back road, Hong Chengchou said: "Okay! In this case, don't go back to your home, and resist the Ming army together with this governor on this city wall! ”

These civil officials scolded Hong Chengchou in their hearts one by one, but on the surface, they pretended to be righteous and awe-inspiring, and they looked like they were going to die.

Hong Chengchou didn't care about these civil officials, and said to Ma Degong beside him: "General Ma, you lead the remaining 20,000 people to respond in the center of the city, and if there is something in that place, you will rescue that side, you know?" ”

Ma Degong hurriedly bowed down to receive the order, as Hong Chengchou's cronies, he naturally knew why Lord Hong did this, this was to leave a way back for himself, so that he could run away with him if it didn't work.

The circumference of Yangzhou City is more than 20 miles, if all the siege will require hundreds of thousands of soldiers, and Zhao Guodong is only 40,000 people, he can not besiege Yangzhou to death at all, except for the south gate, which is the main direction of attack, the other city gates are left with hundreds of people. Therefore, Yangzhou City has never broken off contact with the outside world since it was besieged, which is one of the reasons why Yangzhou City has not been able to be attacked for a long time.

After the Ming army outside the city completed the artillery test, it began to officially attack the city, and for a time the cannon roared here in the south of Yangzhou, and everyone outside the city began to prepare for their uncertain fate in the future. The residents of Yangzhou in the city knew that Yangzhou City was going to be broken this time, and the sound of the cannon hitting the city wall was different from before, and these people began to flee to the north city one after another, mobilizing various resources to escape from the city, but the north city gate was in the hands of the Qing army, and the governor Hong Daren had already issued a strict order, and anyone who came to the city wall within ten zhang immediately shot and killed.

There was chaos inside the city, and it was about the same outside, and the army departments began to prepare in advance, waiting for the walls to collapse.

Zhu Jiang escorted weapons and equipment by land, and the ships in the canal were all pulled to transport artillery, so they had to take the land route. However, because they set off early, Zhu Jiang's battalion arrived in Yangzhou one day earlier than the fleet.

Zhu Jiang led people to hand over the weapons and equipment to the logistics officer of his division headquarters, asked his subordinates to go back to rest first, and came to the division headquarters to meet Zhang Bao to hand over the order.

Zhang Bao has been busy for more than a month, the 10th Division is still an empty shelf, except for the grassroots officers are complete, there is no soldier, after Zhang Bao begged his grandfather to tell his grandmother, the military aircraft department promised to hand over the 5,000 captured Qing troops to the 10th Division, which is the first batch of soldiers, and the rest will have to wait for the training of recruits in Nanjing to be transported to Yangzhou.

But these are all trivial things, now the world is in chaos, and there are things for the homeless people who can't get enough to eat, if you give Zhang Bao power, don't say more than 10,000 people, even 50,000 people can be recruited. However, the military regulations of the new army stipulate that generals leading troops are not allowed to recruit troops without authorization, and can only be recruited by recruiting ambassadors sent by the Military Aircraft Department, and then after three months of recruit training, they can be handed over to Zhang Bao for use.

Now Zhang Bao is on fire because the more than 5,000 people under his command have no weapons and equipment, and they are all empty-handed. Zhang Bao went to Zhao Guodong many times to get some muskets, but was scolded back by Zhao Guodong, Zhang Bao had no choice but to send Jiang Pengju to the Guazhou ferry to wait, a boatload of weapons was immediately snatched down, no matter whose it was shipped to Yangzhou, Zhang Bao did not dare to be angry with Zhao Guodong and had to go to the unlucky magistrate to vent his anger.

Zhang Bao was overjoyed when he heard that the equipment had returned at the division headquarters, and hurriedly let Zhu Jiang in.

In the 10th Division, no one knew Zhu Jiang's identity except for a few high-ranking officials, and his rank in the army was higher than anything else, so Zhu Jiang had to salute Zhang Bao when he came into the house.

"Report to the sir, the last general has brought back weapons and equipment from Guazhou!"

Zhang Bao asked, "Okay! How many muskets, artillery were brought back! ”

Hearing Zhang Bao ask this, Zhu Jiang replied hesitantly: "Sir, there is no musket!" There were ten pieces of artillery, but they were snatched by the general on his own initiative! Please, sir! ”

Zhang Bao didn't care if he robbed it, it would be good to get it, and he didn't care about Zhu Jiang's review, and asked, "No musket?" What does the ginger blind man eat! Zhang Bao didn't dare to scold Zhu Jiang, only Jiang Pengju, who was in charge.

Zhu Jiang hurriedly explained to Jiang Pengju: "Sir, it's not that Senior Commander Jiang doesn't work hard, he really doesn't have a musket!" I heard from Division Commander Jiang that the musket factory in Guangdong was already running at full capacity, and all the muskets produced were shipped to Wuchang, where the number of new troops was too small and he was afraid that he would not be able to defeat the Qing army on the other side. The last general has already scraped the warehouse in Guazhou, and there are only ten artillery pieces! ”

Zhang Bao sighed, there was nothing he could do without him.

"Don't you have any weapons but artillery?"

"Sir, there is! The last general brought in 6,000 pairs of armor! ”