Outside the city of Xialiao, there were more than 30,000 soldiers and civilians of Guangnan State besieging the city, and the Ming army refused to mix with them and was responsible for the defense of the east alone. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

The rain kept falling, and the soldiers of the Huang family were busy and didn't care about the wind and rain.

One of the most important things is to check the moisture of the gunpowder, because no matter how carefully it is packaged, it is inevitable that the gunpowder will be damp after ten days of trekking in the rain.

The musketeers dried the damp gunpowder in their tents, not over an open flame, of course, but with tools specially crafted by musketeers and skilled craftsmen.

It was a rectangular tank three feet long, two feet wide and one foot high, made of thin white copper plates, with insulation on all five sides except for the top.

The water tank was filled with boiling water, and the musketeers poured the damp gunpowder on it and spread it out, stir-frying it with wooden strips from time to time, and the water vapor evaporated in a moment, and they could dry two or three catties of gunpowder in a moment.

This tank has a water inlet on top and a draining faucet underneath, and can also be used as a marching tank, providing soldiers with clean drinking water will reduce the likelihood of contracting diseases.

The tent where the gunpowder is dried is separated from the tent where the water is boiled, and it is better to carry boiling water to change the water tank than to prevent open flames in the tent where the gunpowder is piled up, or to put safety first and prevent unnecessary casualties caused by accidents.

The Huang family's private soldiers adopted the method of not being afraid of trouble, spending more time and wasting more fuel, and they were busy every day, and the results were so good that even the soldiers' clothes, shoes and socks could be kept dry, and the flintlock pistols were polished by the careful soldiers.

Huang Donghai's artillerymen all treated the artillery as a son, and the artillery was stored in a tent where the ground was dried, and there was not a trace of rust in the entire gun body and all the steel parts.

In order to reduce the total weight of the supplies, none of the steel prefabricated watchtowers were brought with them this time, and the eight watchposts built by the engineers 500 steps outside the east gate of Xialiao City were all log structures.

There is a moat in Xialiao City, because this is a mountainous area, the moat is not wide and up and down, the river bank is stone, and the Ming army in the barracks is helping to make trench cars and ladders.

The Huang family's consistent style is rather than enough, all the soldiers have learned not to be afraid of trouble, and they all know that being thoughtful is responsible for themselves and their comrades.

The migrant workers and soldiers of Guangnan were amazed when they saw the camps of the Ming army, because of the scientific design of the drainage ditch, the low-lying places were filled high, and the wooden rows nailed into fine logs were erected between the ravines, and the main road sections were simply used to pave the ground to prevent moisture and slip.

The camp of the Ming army is clean and orderly, most of the tents are connected to form a long whole, and a hundred soldiers can live in it, and a one-person high canopy is also built between the main passages, like a corridor, and the soldiers will not be wet when they walk around.

Hu Minh Son and Nguyen Phuc Kang were surprised to see everything in the Ming army, and they found that their country could not learn in any way, first of all, there were not so many good tarpaulins, and secondly, it was impossible for the soldiers of Quang Nam to work so meticulously.

Huang Sheng knew that even in the rainy season, it was impossible not to see the sun all day long, for the safety of his subordinates, he did not consider attacking the city in the rain at all, but waited patiently, as long as the sky was clear, Huang Sheng had the confidence to break through the city.

The army was stationed for seven days, and for seven days it was carefully prepared, and all the officers were at the lookout posts and used binoculars to observe the city that was about to be captured many times.

Xialiao City is really prosperous, the buildings inside are mainly made of stone, many buildings full of Southeast Asian style are beautiful, the soldiers and civilians in the city are not panicked, and life is still the same.

At the head of the city, the rolling wood and stones used to defend the city were piled up, and the soldiers of the Lancang Kingdom who were looking out were not panicked at all, perhaps because of the success of holding the city of Xialiao too many times, they were nervous.

After observation, Huang Donghai concluded that the artillery deployed at the east gate of Xialiao was not the Hongyi cannon, but the thousand-pound Franc machine that was rear-mounted and used the sub-gun, and because the breath-holding effect was not ideal, the range of the Franc machine was far inferior to the Hongyi cannon, and it was even less than the Huang family's field six-pounder smoothbore gun.

Huang Donghai decided to attack the city without using eight rifled guns to kill the enemy's artillery first, but to use twenty-six guns to bombard the enemy at the same time to shock the enemy army.

A short period of sunny weather in the rainy season is hard to come by, of course, we must make good use of every second, and on the premise that it will not cause more casualties to our army, the sooner the better, and the General Staff immediately adjusted the plan.

Huang Sheng thought that the enemy's equipment for defending the city was sufficient, and it would become a nightmare for the enemy when the Ming army attacked the city.

Everything is ready, just wait for the heavens to be beautiful!

In the evening, Hu Minh Son and Ruan Phuc Kang happily came to report the good news, and with their rich experience, they could conclude that the sun will definitely rise tomorrow, and if they are lucky, there will be three sunny days, and no matter how bad it is, they will guarantee that there will be sunshine tomorrow.

When the news was transmitted to the whole army, the soldiers cheered one by one, and the joy was as if the city had arrived.

Hu Minh Son and Nguyen Phuc Kang looked at each other and smiled bitterly, the Ming army did not know the height of the sky, I am afraid that it will suffer, and it is so easy to fight here that it will not make the armies of Da Viet Kingdom, Quang Nam Kingdom, Ayutthaya Kingdom, Khmer Kingdom and other countries look at the city for decades and sigh.

The 500 guides and soldiers of Guangnan were ready to see what these gorgeously dressed and well-eaten Ming soldiers looked like when they lost their troops after the failure of the siege, and did they still sing and dance and laugh loudly every day?

In the early hours of the morning, the genius was slightly bright, and the Ming army came to the 500-step formation outside the east gate of Xialiao, and the preparation work did not take more than half an hour, when suddenly the earth-shattering artillery roar echoed between the valleys.

One hundred taels of armored combat vehicles approached at full speed, columns of musketeers continued to fire and advance, and dozens of trench bridges were carried by engineers and auxiliaries approaching at full speed.

The grenadiers trotted twenty paces beyond the moat and began to make four more rounds, and one by one the "Megatron Thunder" crossed the arc and fell into the city walls and the city.

The continuous sound of explosions, the splashing of rubble shrapnel ruthlessly harvested life, the defenders of Xialiao City had not seen the war of hot weapons at all, everyone was frightened, and saw the comrades around them fall one by one with blood all over their bodies, and the soldiers and civilians who were lucky enough to survive cried and ran to the city without their lives.

Outside the east gate, the battle had only started for less than half an hour, dozens of trench bridges had been successfully built, and one by one the ladders leaned directly against the city wall, and almost no resistance was encountered.

The first to be allowed to ascend the city were the martial artists of the fully armed pro-army team led by Liu Guozheng, who jumped up to the city one by one with a light steel round shield, a one-handed battle axe, or a double-barreled short gun.

In just two quarters, the drawbridge at the east gate was captured, the city gate was opened, the heavy infantry marched into the city, the musketeers alternately covered and advanced, and the crackling gunfire continued, like headless flies scattered and the fleeing defenders had many of their understanding, and they threw down their weapons one by one and knelt down.

As early as when the Ming army threw "flying thunder" with artillery, the soldiers and civilians defending the city were in chaos and lost their organizational discipline, and the officers were also stunned by the fierce artillery fire that they had not seen before, of course, many officers were not stunned, but died.