The suppressed army could not wait to deploy artillery, and they had to take it before dark, as a support point.

If you can't get it before dark, you have to retreat, and it's impossible to spend a night in a place like this - it's okay for the other side to be scared and tremble and have no heart to resist, but this is clearly not the case now.

The general can only hope that all the main forces of the rebel party in the city are here, and with one drum, maybe the situation can be saved, he doesn't know how many forces there are in the city.

The artillery was deployed in the rear, and the first attacking soldiers rushed to the vicinity of the slope when they were subjected to a salvo from the front and to the left and right, where dozens of bodies were lying with lead bullets, and a few bombs dropped from the height of the building completely routed the first tentative attack.

This open space made the general very awkward, the water tower was on the river, and the barricades on the open space on both sides seemed to be a weak point, but the water tower was in the center, and the two sides of the main attack would always be within the range of the crossed angle lead bullets.

The muskets on the opposite side were loaded quickly, and the various explosives thrown from the high altitude made every attack very costly.

This square looks quite large, but there are not many troops that can be deployed, and it is necessary to maintain a large number of soldiers in the back block, in case it is copied from the back by the rebels in the city: if the city is completely chaotic, or the navy cuts in, naturally it is not necessary, and the force of more than 4,000 people can dominate the entire city. But now, apparently, it is stretched.

If there are not many troops deployed, it is impossible to give full play to the superior forces to feint, and can only choose one place as the breakthrough point. The building on the slope that seems to be the most difficult to attack becomes the best attack. As long as there is a breach, the nearby barricades are useless; And just by breaking through the barricades, the building can launch counterattacks and fire at any time, and if you can't take this building, you don't have control of this place at all.

The general did not know how many people could be cobbled together in the city, but he estimated that since there was no chaos in the city, there would be at most seven or eight hundred people excluding the part of people who maintained order.

In the past, it was really simple. Even if those men had a few arquebuses in their hands, without the cover of spears, a single charge could be completely dispersed.

But now, the seven or eight hundred people estimated by the general may have flintlock pistols in their hands. Judging from the salvo just now, although uneven, but you can hear the feeling, these people are likely to have received a certain amount of training, and they should be the elite of the chaotic party.

In fact, he was wrong.

The elite of the "chaotic party" is in Nan'an, in the Great Wilderness City, and even in part of the fleet in Taiwan.

It is true that the number of real elites in the city is small, but there are quite a few passionate volunteers, and there are also many guns in the hands of the Mexican Party who have been preparing for the "riot", and there are nearly 30 legal and illegal cannons hidden in the city.

If it weren't for the control of the military council, there would have been two or three thousand people who rushed to the front with a wave of blood and passion, but this was strictly forbidden.

A temporary member of the Mexican Party was on top of the water tower, and as a member of the city's provisional military council, he was well aware of his mission.

In the vicinity of the wharf, riots had been launched long before the formation of the Provisional Council. Interns and dock workers armed the seizure of the Nanyang Company's ship, set sail to intercept potential naval forces, several captains had a good personal relationship with Chen Jian, and a group of people who had fought in the Battle of Gibraltar.

In order to prevent special circumstances or fear of being deceived, the Provisional Committee gave an order after the riot and seizure of the ship: "When the navy is discovered, the flag is directly raised to announce that the Mincheng security force is quelling the rebellion, and someone is disguised as the navy to participate in the turmoil, and the navy is requested to return to the port and stop the ship for inspection." As long as the other party does not accept it, directly seize the wind direction, take the initiative to fire, and do not hesitate and give the other party a chance to breathe. ”

The outcome of the naval battle is not yet known, but the threat from the side of the Navy is no longer great.

Therefore, the Provisional Military Council believes that the most dangerous time is tonight, and there must be no chaos in the city, because once there is chaos in the city, it will be self-defeating.

The vast majority of the mobilized forces, as well as the elite fighting teams of the Mexican Party, were to participate in maintaining order in the city.

If someone can't sit still tonight and jumps out on their own initiative, then they will be shot directly without trial, and they will survive tonight, stabilize the mood in the city, and make arrangements in the city by various committees and provisional institutions and parties, and only then can a large number of volunteers be deployed to fight back tomorrow.

Equally, this afternoon is extremely important for the repressive army. Under the condition that there is no chaos in the city and the navy cannot participate, the four or five thousand people of the army will not be able to attack Fujian City at all. Before tonight, if they can't take the water tower in the slum of the dock, they will have to leave.

If they withdraw, or give up altogether, everything is fine. At that time, as soon as the main forces of the miners and peasant associations in Nan'an arrived, no matter what the army was talking about, they would never accept any peace talks, and directly captured the barracks, the naval port, and the coastal batteries, and then discussed the question of whether to rebel or counter the rebellion.

If they do not withdraw, they will organize a counterattack tomorrow afternoon and wipe them out in the city.

In order to achieve this goal, there are not many military forces here in the water tower, but there are definitely a few.

The real military force was two elite companies of the carpentry factory, two pickets of dock workers, half a company of barricade grenadiers, plus one twelve-pound cannon, seven six-pound guns, and thirteen three-pound guns.

In fact, there were still artillery hidden in the city, but the Provisional Military Council left some of them to be deployed in several important squares, and in the event of a riot at night, they would bombard the city directly at all costs.

After all, it is not a regular army, if it is a regular flintlock army, and there are so many cannons, Chen Jian, as the first member of the Provisional Military Committee, can choose to let the suppressed army stick here and organize forces to directly encircle and annihilate it.

It's a pity that this is the first time to face this situation, you can't seek danger, you can only seek stability, once you can't take risks, you must fight a meaningless war of attrition and hold on.

As long as it is not breached, the forces of Mincheng are mobilized, the passion of the burghers is mobilized, and the rural reform is violently and mildly completed within a year, as long as the battlefield is in Minjun, there is no problem in resisting 350,000 regular troops.

The navy's fleet in the Great Wilderness City cooperates with the fleet of the Nanyang Company, as long as Qi does not cooperate with the navy, there will be no problem in suppressing it in the early stage. Fight consumption, as long as the tropical route continues, teak and tropical shipbuilding wood are not truncated, and the navy on the other side of the capital can't fight for consumption.

If the Qi state wanted to take the opportunity to destroy the navy of the company that suppressed their trade, and the capital colluded with the Spanish navy, the nature would change: the capital colluded with foreign enemies to massacre the countrymen.

Although this kind of thing is absolutely done with the shamelessness of the ruling class, although it is cool for a while, it may be a mass grave for the whole family - the backlash from the bottom will be very serious, and there is no possibility of compromise at all.

Therefore, in the long run, it is only necessary to be stable today, even if the suppressed army is frightened into fleeing and then pay a greater price to attack the fortress fortress, it is worth it.

The provisional commissar stationed at the front line observed the movement on the opposite side from a high vantage point, delegated the command of the left wing and artillery to a young man who had graduated from the surveying and mapping school, and repeatedly exhorted him to be stable.

The surname of a young man from a surveying and mapping school has a single name, but it's a pity that this name is short-sighted.

Although Xiang Tong is a young man, he is also a veteran in the party compared to those slightly older temporary committee members, and he can be arranged to guard the left wing.

At the beginning, he studied surveying and mapping and mathematics in the school, followed Chen Jian to the sea, and followed Chen Jian to study for several years in the round-the-world voyage.

However, Xiang Tong's temperament is a young man after all, and he promised to seek stability on his lips, but he couldn't hide his excitement in his heart.

It is said that the realization of self-worth, in this chaotic situation, Xiang Tong can't think of anything that can reflect self-worth more than becoming famous in a fight.

The other party's first tentative attack had receded, Xiang Tong picked off his glass eyes, rubbed his somewhat blurry eyes, stood on horseback with a monocular and observed the opposite side, and couldn't help but pout.

Twelve of the twenty-one cannons were deployed on the left flank and had not yet been deployed. On the opposite side there were only five six-pound light field guns.

The infantry on the left flank was a little weaker, and the real military force was a carpentry factory company, and there were still more than 300 Chinese volunteers left, so it was okay for them to defend the barricades, but the attack was not good at all.

In the single-pass lens, the cannons on the opposite side are being dragged from behind, where the army is assembled, apparently preparing for a formal attack.

Xiang Tong on horseback muttered: "The artillery is in the middle, and the infantry on both sides didn't dig the breastwall at all, and they are still throwing money there to buy the warriors of the first wave of attack?" Is this simply that this side can only defend? After so many years of not fighting, the loose uprising under the suppression is a little too easy, how did this thing become a general? ”

Although full of passion and youthful impulsiveness, it does not mean that it is not cautious, and after repeated observations, Xiang Tong became more and more sure that there was no possibility of a preventive counterattack on the other side, probably because it had never appeared in the process of suppression over the years.

It is said that if it is for the sake of stability, the best choice at this time is to deploy the twelve-pound cannon and the rest of the six-pound guns, bombard them from a long distance, delay the opponent's assembly, and the time can easily drag on until evening.

The artillery on this side must be more accurate than the other side, whether the artillery can be accurate or not is a matter of the artillery, and whether the theoretical accuracy is a human business. Even if it is more a matter of luck at this time, the luck of the Goddess of Hit Rate is always closer to these gunners who are better at mathematics.

So Xiang Tong had a bold idea, voted among the members of the left-wing organization, called a liaison, and asked him to apply.

"Don't delay the enemy's assembly by shelling, wait for the enemy to assemble and before the attack, quickly launch light three-pound artillery fire, and quickly launch a counterattack, the enemy will be chaotic. The six-pound cannon and the twelve-pound cannon can be used as a chariot attack instead of participating in the battle, and this open ground and hard stone road is completely feasible. There was no need to think about the organization of our volunteers, the passion and enthusiasm of the charge after the salvo was enough to crush the panicked enemy troops who were panicked by the sudden shelling and counterattack. ”

"In view of this, the collective discussion on the left flank suggested that all the barricade grenadier youth companies be mobilized to the left flank, and that the left flank be given a regular company that could drive the enemy out of the city before sunset."

He wiped his fingers against the lenses of his glasses and signed his name first in line on the paper.