The battle ended not long after entering hand-to-hand combat, and the Guanning army was defeated and fled, and the new army sent these opponents with a salvo of firearms, and did not try in vain to continue to expand the results of the battle by seizing the city gate by cavalry, but continued to maintain pressure on Tongguan, until the new army of Aobai went around the back of Tongguan and returned to the camp. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

The first battle of the new army directly gave the defender Hu Guozhu a powerful blow, and the loss of soldiers was negligible compared to the number of defenders, but the morale blow was really not light.

At nightfall, the anxious carrier pigeons took off and flew to the Guanning military camp in Xi'an, and at the same time brought the details of how they were beaten by the new army to Wu Sangui's Jiwang Mansion.

That night, with the help of the familiarity of the terrain, the Guanning army sent two armies to launch a night attack on the two large camps in Jidu and Aobai respectively. In particular, the big camp in Aobai was built in a shorter period of time, and it was more hasty, and the art of war said that since ancient times, the camp was stolen, with nine wins and one defeat, which was the newly established camp, and naturally it was the focus of Hu Guozhu's attack.

Unexpectedly, Ao Bai had expected this, and the new army in the two towns did not rest at all, and easily caught Hu Guozhu off guard.

Early the next morning, Ao Bai pulled the prisoners of the night attack unit of the Guanning Army to the front of the pass and beheaded them for public display, and after a demoralization blow, he returned to the camp for repair. And the Guan Ning army in Tongguan did not choose to attack in the next few days, and passively guarded the city. Fortunately, the Forces nouvelles did not attack either, and everything seemed to have come to a standstill.

Such silence cannot last forever, there are thousands of acres of fertile land in the pass, there are rivers passing through the city, and there are a lot of grain and grass accumulated in the meantime, but there will always be a day when they will be eaten. As for the Qing army, there is no reason to drag on, just as Liu Cheng said, what they need is a devastating victory, and every day of postponement here will be a certain degree of blow to the prestige of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and the longer it drags on, the more severe the blow will be.

A few days later, the new army went out in a big way, but this time, instead of carrying the siege equipment, they dragged a cannon that looked powerful towards the artillery position that had been demarcated.

Tongguan is condescending, easy to defend and difficult to attack, and its architectural style is to better prevent cold weapons from attacking the city. If the Qing army captures Tongguan, it is not difficult to go straight to the city, but if you want to capture it, it is far from so simple, and it is even likely that there will be a loss of troops and a delay of time, but in the end it is still impossible to break it.

This has never been uncommon since ancient times. However, today, firearms have developed to the current level, and this kind of fortress built purely to prevent cold weapons from attacking the city will be much more vulnerable in front of artillery, otherwise Hu Guozhu would not have sent infantry to line up in the mountains outside the gate before.

The Qing army's artillery team arrived, twenty large-caliber Hongyi cannons, this number, even compared with the Qing army before entering the customs when they attacked the Daling River, but in addition to these Hongyi cannons, the Qing army also carried three mortar cannons. Last year, it cost a lot of money to send it to European maritime merchants, and it was also all the mortar artillery stocks of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, which were originally prepared for the army to meet the fortress of the Ming army in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Zhejiang when the army went south, but now it is used on Tongguan.

The new army did not have such heavy artillery, and it was also to prevent these artillery from slowing down the march of the new army, and it was always escorted by the Eight Banners Army under Fu Shou, and it was indispensable to rely on rivers along the way, and it was only now that it was transported to the front of the army. The capacity it occupies has dragged the army of rich ribbons behind.

The Hongyi artillery team, escorted by the new army, advanced towards the prepared artillery position, while the mortar remained behind the formation. There are no professional engineers in the new army, these artillery positions are all learned by Liu Cheng when he was in the recruit training camp, the slope parapet wall of the half moon can perfectly absorb the kinetic energy of the opponent's artillery shells, reduce the lethality, the Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Ming armies have been using it all these years, and it is still improving, Liu Cheng sent auxiliaries to build these days is only the earliest kind of specifications, but it is enough to deal with the Tongguan in the distance.

Tongguan is condescending, but its city walls are often five or ten zhang high, but it is not suitable for the placement of large-caliber artillery. It is not that the fear of overweight artillery will crush the city wall, but the huge kinetic energy of large-caliber artillery firing can push the cannonball out of miles and miles, and the wall that is too high is absolutely unbearable, and there is no need to bombard it at all, as long as the defenders of the city fire a few cannons, the walls of the city wall are likely to crack on their own, or even collapse.

At this moment, seeing that the new army was escorting the artillery team into the predetermined position, and that large-caliber artillery could not be placed on the city, and that small-caliber artillery could not hit there at all, Hu Guozhu had to open the city gate again and sent a large number of troops to attack the artillery position of the Qing army.

The defenders had to go out of the city to fight their opponents, who had defeated them in the field battle a few days before, because they knew very well that the Xiongguan could only survive if the artillery was destroyed. However, Hu Guozhu's thinking is very clear, but Liu Cheng has also been prepared.

The new corps of the brigade had already been in front of the artillery positions, with the spearmen behind and the musketeers in front, only in front of the artillery positions, but as if it were an insurmountable chasm.

The Guanning army made a big move, and when the infantry was still assembled outside the gate, the cavalry of the brigade had already rushed over. In the face of this Guanning iron cavalry, the cavalry of the new army did not hesitate to meet it, and the two sides fought on the battlefield, and the fight was difficult to solve for a while.

With great difficulty, the infantry of the Guanning Army, who had hurriedly exited the pass, completed the formation and began to rush towards the artillery position. But at this moment, the Hongyi cannon of the new army had already completed loading during this time, and the first huge roar sounded, and the shells were fired out of the Hongyi cannon one after another.

The cannonball streaked through the sky at an unimaginable speed, and almost the next moment the cannon sounded, Hu Guozhu, who was standing on the wall of Tongguan, could already feel the vibration under his feet.

"Attack, get those guys outside the city to speed up!"

Tongguan is the gate of Shaanxi, and now the Qing army has begun to remove the lock, and if they don't quickly destroy the lock-picking tools, then their defenders in the city, not to mention that they are guarding the city, even if they are waiting for Wu Sangui's reinforcements, they are just wishful thinking.

The handsome flag pressed forward, and the Guanning army accelerated its speed to kill the artillery position of the new army. Liu Cheng looked at it from a distance, and Guan Ningjun's movements were all exposed to the telescope, which was faster and clearer than the exploration of horses. Seeing some special features in this Guanning army, Liu Cheng smiled coldly, and then said to Ji Du: "Lord Wang, the traitor has done his best. ”

"Yes, but the new army is still far from helping."

At the same time as the laughter sounded at each other, the Hongyi cannon finally ended the preparation work after a series of steps such as resetting, slag cleaning, loading, and aiming for a few minutes, and then with the order of the gun commander, a new round of strikes was once again reflected on the city wall of Tongguan.

The artillery of the Manchu Qing Dynasty relied on experience in artillery operation and aiming technology, not its strong point. After Liu Cheng surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, especially when he began to organize and train the new army, he re-invited Jesuit missionaries to teach him the aiming technique, and made great progress. At this moment, the first round of test firing is over, and the second round of shelling has more shells on the city wall of Tongguan, and some of the wall tiles at the hit point have shown signs of loosening and crumbling, and the difference is only the quantity.

The shelling sounded again, and the troops of the Guanning army gathered up their speed and slaughtered the new army that was waiting for them. The range of the Hongyi artillery was superior, and the distance between the two sides was far farther than a few days ago, and the Rao is Guanning army accelerated its advance, and it was only after a few rounds of firing that the Hongyi artillery reached a distance of one hundred and twenty paces.

Further, entering a distance of 100 paces is the range of the Lu Mi gun, after the battle a few days ago, the Guan Ning army has already seen the range of the opponent's weapon. Therefore, when the army arrived, it immediately adjusted its formation, with auxiliaries holding door panels removed from the city as the front row, and continued to advance towards the new army only after the reorganization was completed.

Guan Ningjun's response was like this, but the new army was not touched by half a point, and still maintained the queue in front of the firecrackers. When Guan Ningjun stepped into the distance of 100 paces, rows of volleys unfolded again, but this time they hit the door panel, but the effect was far inferior to the last time.

These door panels were removed from the homes of the people in the city, and the thickness varied, but with this layer of protection, the kinetic energy of the lead bullet will be reduced a lot, and some will not even be able to shoot through it at all, let alone cause damage to the human body.

The first platoon of the fire was negligible, and the most obvious effect was that the auxiliaries in the front row of the Guanning Army slowed down their pace by half a beat while being shot, and only after a short pause did they regain their courage and continue to move forward under the reprimand of the officers behind.

Liu Cheng followed Chen Wen's method when training the new army's gunners, strictly prohibiting the gunners from observing the results of the shooting, and immediately entering the next stage of tactical action after the shooting was over, without the slightest stagnation.

After more than a year of drilling, the new army at this moment, just like the Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Ming armies, finished shooting, and the musketeers in the first row did not look at it, turned around and walked to the back of the third platoon, at the same time, the second and third platoons also strode forward, and then the musketeers in the second platoon pulled the trigger under the order.

Guan Ning's army continued to advance against the door panel, but as the distance continued to close, some of the lead bullets either caused more damage to the parts that could not be protected, or penetrated the door panel and then hit the auxiliary soldiers, and the door panel array gradually began to be destroyed, and the casualties began to rise in a straight line.

However, for this Guanning army, compared with the battalion leader who clashed with the new army a few days ago, it can be called a blessing. Shooting with firearms, this Guanning army approached the distance suitable for charging at a very small cost, and then with the beginning of the charging and throwing of sword and shield soldiers, the two armies also quickly entered the stage of hand-to-hand combat.

However, once it enters the hand-to-hand combat stage, the door panel formation, which can still reduce some of the damage, has no effect on the ironclad infantry of the new army, although the spear may not be able to pierce the door panel, but those places that cannot be blocked will naturally become the target of the spear.

Walking so far, the door panel naturally had to be carried by two auxiliaries. The door panel was already cumbersome, so the auxiliary soldiers had no chance of blocking those deliberate assassinations.

The door panel formation was broken in an instant, and the sword and shield soldiers and pikemen behind were quickly suppressed by the hand-to-hand infantry of the new army, and the new army once again suppressed the offensive of the Guanning army with the ironclad infantry.

"Kill!"

The dense spearmen kept stabbing and stabbing the firecrackers who abandoned their guns and drew their knives skillfully squatted under the wings of the spears and launched a fierce attack on the Guanning army. With the continuous rise in casualties, the morale gradually fell to a low point, and it didn't take long for it to be defeated.

This time, the new army no longer saw off with firearms, but pressed up in formation, forcing the Guanning army to rout, and soon even the cavalry was coerced in the direction of Guancheng.

At the same time as the two armies clashed, the successive shots of the Hongyi cannon continued to baptize the city wall, but the number of shots was too much, and the overheating of the cannon barrel also made the Qing army have to suspend firing to cool down. However, as the Forces nouvelles launched a counteroffensive, the mortars also approached the positions suitable for artillery bombardment as the Forces nouvelles advanced.

At the beginning of the long preparation, the crews of these mortars were all trained by European gunners hired by the Jesuits, and the time was not short, but the loading speed and aiming were still too poor. When Liu Cheng was in the recruit training camp, Chen Wen began to train the mortar artillery crew, but it was done in secret, and Liu Cheng did not know anything about it. However, this time, the defenders of Tongguan went out of the city and suffered another heavy defeat, the city wall was too high, and there was no artillery on it that was enough to threaten these mortars, and they were also slowly prepared, just waiting for the moment when the city wall collapsed.

I don't know how long it took, the cooldown of the Hongyi cannon had ended, and shooting resumed, and these mortars were completely prepared, and then bombarded the city wall of Tongguan.

Huge cannonballs rose into the air and fell rapidly, and the three shells of the first round all hit the slope in front of the pass without exception. There was no damage to the city walls, but the shock was not far behind even when it was directly hit by the Hongyi cannons.

The mortar cannon was muted again, the gate of Tongguan was opened, and the cavalry rushed out. However, in front of the new army, they were only some goods who came to send them to death, not only did they not complete the task of destroying the mortar, but they were quickly dispersed by the cavalry and infantry of the new army, and retreated towards the other city gates in a hurry.

Next, the mortar was reset, debris, loaded, and the angle was also readjusted, and the second round of shelling began, and although only one of the three shells hit the city wall, it blasted the city wall open in one fell swoop.

With the appearance of this opening, the city wall, which has been bombarded by Hongyi artillery for a long time, can no longer support it, and the city bricks and walls continue to shatter, along with the continuous sinking of that section of the city wall, the fragments are flying and the smoke and dust are vacated. Then, the small cracks of this sound quickly intertwined, and then turned into a loud sound like the sky and the earth cracking.