"Bang! Bang! Bang! ”

The new six-pounder cannon made of imitation of the Furlong machine cannon was the standard weapon of the infantry battalion of the Chu army, and the twelve six-pounder guns of the artillery team of the Pingjiang battalion lined up in a row, and bombarded the city gate tower incessantly.

The old-fashioned red-coated cannons were imitated by Western naval guns, and there were many problems in land warfare, but the Chu army imitated the land cannon brought by 300 Portuguese soldiers, with high muzzle velocity, long range, and a perfect trajectory of nearly 45 degrees, although it was still a six-pounder gun, its power was comparable to that of the Qing army's eight-pounder gun.

With puffs of white smoke, cannonballs shot at the gate of Shangrao City with a terrible whistling sound, the heavens and the earth seemed to be filled with this sound, as if the impermanence of the soul from the hell of Abi let out an angry roar, the Qing army on the head of the city had long been hiding and could not see the figure, only a green flag was planted on the female wall, declaring that they were still holding on to resist.

As the cannonballs smashed the city wall, the broken stone and bricks flew, and a flagpole with the thickness of a bowl mouth was hit by the cannonball, breaking as lightly as chopsticks, but the flight trajectory of the cannonball did not change, and it hit the female wall behind it, and the masonry exploded high, which was mixed with several screams of the Qing army.

The bombardment lasted for two quarters of an hour, and the entire city wall kept shaking, and the city gate tower collapsed in half, and the thick city gate was punched out of a hole, and the upper circle of the city looked like a huge ship about to sink, and the city wall seemed to collapse in the next moment.

But the final result was disappointing, after the shelling stopped, the walls still stood there, except for some superficial damage, the main structure was not much damaged.

Shangrao. After all, it is a strong city of Fu, and after Zhang Cunren's continuous repair and reinforcement for half a year, it cannot destroy its city fortifications with twelve six-pounder guns.

"Boom! Boom! Knock knock ......"

The shelling has just stopped. The drums of war suddenly sounded, and the soldiers of the Pingjiang battalion rushed towards the city wall with ladders and various siege equipment.

After they rushed through the first outer trench, rows of Qing troops appeared on the city wall, and began to block them with artillery, muskets, and bows and arrows, and the Chu soldiers were constantly hit, but more soldiers finally rushed to the city wall and put the ladder on the battlement. One by one, they crawled towards the city, and one by one they were defeated by the Qing army......

Three attacks in a row, the Pingjiang battalion returned in vain. The Qing army held on to the city with the help of the city wall, and it was difficult to force the ant to attack the city.

The fierce battle continued until the evening, and Wang Jin, who had a heavy face, finally ordered the gong to be sounded and the troops were withdrawn, and after returning to the camp. He had been lying on his stomach in front of the map. The soldiers made the food hot and hot, but he didn't move.

Three days ago, the Pingjiang battalion conquered Balibao and other strongholds in the south of the city, and the Changsha battalion finally took Lingshan in the north of the city. But I didn't expect it to be so difficult to fight around the city. After two days and two nights of fierce fighting, the Pingjiang battalion still failed to set foot in the city. But the blood that burst into the big teeth flowed out.

"This battle has to be played differently......"

Wang Jincai regretted and felt distressed, regretting that he should not be in a hurry to seize the merits, and launched a siege battle without making full preparations, and the distressing thing was that the casualties of the troops were too great, and in two days, nearly 1,000 people had been lost.

……

The Battle of Shangrao was only a partial battle in the Eastern Crusade, and Wang Kefan did not intervene too much, but appointed Wang Sheng with full authority to command the front.

As the Chu army advanced step by step, Wang Sheng's headquarters also continued to move forward, moving from Anren County to Guixi County, and from Guixi County to Geyang County, which was only a little more than 100 miles away.

His headquarters was set up in a large courtyard, and it was almost midnight, and the rooms in the courtyard were still brightly lit, and officers and soldiers were constantly coming and going, and staff officers and civilian personnel were all busy working at their desks and holding meetings and discussions. Seeing that Shangrao is about to complete the siege, all kinds of things are gathered in the headquarters, and tonight, the headquarters is destined to be another sleepless night.

In a south-facing main room, Wang Sheng was writing something in front of the table.

After writing a paragraph, he put the already dry brush into the inkstone and slowly licked the ink, and suddenly put the pen down again, frowning and falling into thought, and the ink-stained hand subconsciously gently rubbed his forehead, looking slightly tired.

Wang Sheng is already much older than his peers, coupled with frequent late nights and irregular work and rest, he has been under tremendous pressure for a long time, and he is obviously less than thirty years old, but he looks like a middle-aged person who is about to enter the age of confusion. Under the light, a few faint traces of white hair were swaggering, and next to the corners of the tightly pursed mouth, two deep wrinkles were very obvious, and only a pair of shining eyes were still bright.

Recently, he felt a lot of weight on his shoulders, from the Battle of Raozhou Mansion to the Battle of Shangrao, in just half a year, he independently commanded two medium-sized battles...... Compared with the battle of Raozhou, which only needed to repel the Qing army and occupy the Lengshuikeng silver mine, the battle of Shangrao was more demanding, not only to capture the strong city and annihilate Zhang Cunren's department, but also to use Wang Jincai and Cao Zhijian's troops as the main offensive force, and not to use the elite of the old eighth battalion of the Chu army, such as Wang Sheng's own Chongyang battalion, which was placed in Jinxian County behind as a reserve.

This battle is not easy to fight.

But it's just that it's not easy to fight, it's not that it can't be won, and the development of the war is still under Wang Sheng's control. Pressure can promote people's growth, and now Wang Sheng has a bit of a strategic general's demeanor.

At this time, at the gate of the courtyard of the headquarters, a group of four people suddenly came, and they were being inspected by the sentry.

Among the three people, the leader is a middle-aged man in his forties, with long hands and feet, rough skin, and a face engraved with traces left by the wind and frost of the years.

Behind him were two young men in their twenties, apparently his retinue or juniors, and the other was a bearded officer who had come with him, negotiating with the sentry. The bearded officer and the sentry knew each other, but the sentry carefully checked the three of them, then nodded to the middle-aged man named Wu Yongqi and led them into the gate.

"Please come in, the boss has already explained, and you will be here today and tomorrow."

The sentry saw that the bearded officer was walking forward, and hurriedly chased after him and stopped him: "Hey, Ma Hualong, you wait here for a while, I'll go and report to General Wang San......"

Wu Yongqi was the head of the craftsmen of the Daming River Division, in other words, the chief engineer of the River Division, who belonged to engineering and technical personnel, and had very rich experience in river management and embankment repair, and was later forced to join the Qing army. During the Battle of Nanchang, he helped Li Chengdong dig a super moat in Qingjiang, which caused a lot of trouble to the Chu army.

Walking into the courtyard with two apprentices, Wu Yongqi was a little surprised and a little curious when he saw the busy scene in several rooms.

He had been in the Qing army for a while, but he had never seen this kind of scene in front of him, shouldn't the war be like on the stage? As soon as the general gave the order, the soldiers of the three armies went straight to the enemy's city to fight, and many people were writing and calculating in the middle of the night, which was really strange to watch.

Will this be able to win the battle?

I heard that General Wang San is very powerful, I don't know what he looks like......

After meeting Wang Sheng, Wu Yongqi found that General Wang San was a very amiable person, completely different from Li Chengdong, he was not like a murderous general, but like an elegant scholar.

"General Wang San, I brought Wu Yongqi here."

The bearded officer named Ma Hualong stepped forward and gave a military salute, Wu Yongqi hurriedly knelt down and kowtowed, but Wang Sheng took two steps forward and helped him up.

"It's better to salute in the army. Wu Yongqi, isn't it? I've heard your name for a long time, come, sit down and talk, I have good tea here, you can taste it......"

Seeing that Wang Sheng didn't have a little shelf, Wu Yongqi was no longer so nervous, but he was still a little restrained, so he sat on the edge of the bench with half of his buttocks, his body was tense, and Wang Sheng asked him any questions, and he immediately stood up and answered respectfully.

"Mr. Wu, sit and talk, aren't you tired? Hehehe, I have some trouble here now, so I specially invited you to ask for advice......" Wang Sheng spread out the map and introduced the situation to Wu Yongqi, he planned to build a few more forts near Bali Fort in the south of Shangrao City to form a tight defense line. The requirements of these fortresses are very high, in addition to the two walled walls, the inner moat and the outer moat and the moat are indispensable, but the geological structure there is more complicated, the construction is very difficult, and the construction period is also very tight.

"The villain went to Shangrao back then, and he is quite familiar with the area of Balibao......"

Wu Yongqi thought for a moment, looked at Wang Sheng, and carefully said after considering the words: "If the engineer battalion is transferred from Raozhou Mansion, the whole battalion of 1,800 people is in Shangrao, of course it is not a problem to repair these forts, but the villain only brought two apprentices this time, even if he recruits another 5,000 long men, there is no engineer battalion to use...... However, General Wang San is not in a hurry, the rich have a way to deal with the poor, as long as General Wang San explains what the use of repairing these forts is, the villain can always come up with a workaround. ”

"I'm a bit of a hassle to ask." Wang Sheng said: "The purpose of repairing these forts is to block the way out of Shangrao to the south and east, but it cannot be completely blocked, so we have to keep a little thought for the Tartars, so that they feel that as long as they are willing to work hard, they can open up the connection with the outside of the city, so as to lure Zhang Cunren's soldiers and horses out of the city." ”

After Wu Yongqi understood, he flashed his eyes and thought for a while, and said, "Well, it's not that there is no way to ...... this."

……

Congratulations! Congratulations!

This is the 30th year of the Chinese New Year's Eve, and I wish you all book lovers!

Wishing you all a prosperous Year of the Goat! Sanyang Kaitai! Pleasant goat, beautiful goat, happy goat, can sleep lazy goat every morning! (To be continued......)