The day after Chen Wen defeated Chen Jin in Quzhou, the northernmost fortress of Anhua Town in the Ming army's occupied area was again besieged by the Qing army.

The location of the fortress was on the way of the Qing army, and there were sufficient soldiers and supporting weapons and equipment and food inside the fortress, which was enough to hold on for a long time. Moreover, during this time, the Ming army also carried out vigorous repairs and reinforcements, and also built some peripheral fortifications, which were easier to defend and difficult to attack than before.

In contrast, the Qing army that appeared on the battlefield was still the three elite Qing troops in northern Zhejiang, namely the Eight Banners of the Hangzhou Garrison, the Zhejiang Admiral Biao Battalion and the Zhejiang Governor Biao Battalion, which besieged the city a few months ago.

Tanma had already given an early warning, and even Lin Zhongxiao and his subordinates knew very well that their commander Chen Wen was pouring all his strength into fighting with the main force of the Qing army on the front line of Quzhou, and it would be strange if the Qing army on the front line of Hangzhou did not kill him. After all, entering Jinhua from here is the safest route for an army of this size.

After the siege a few months ago, the Ming army rebuilt the city wall and introduced a moat, and although the rammed earth wall demolished by the Qing army was not rebuilt, it was rebuilt into a low wall using the original foundation, which could also hinder the Qing army's offensive speed. If you add the half of the Dongyang battalion that is always on standby on the flank to attack at any time to contain the Qing army, this fortress is more difficult to capture than before.

The previous defensive operations and steadfastness in the face of Cao Conglong's rebellion made Lin Zhongxiao get a very good evaluation from Chen Wen, but this is actually just a duty for Lin Zhongxiao, who has always been honest. His hometown is in the village at the foot of Dalan Mountain, if it weren't for Chen Wen to cover the evacuation of the people, I am afraid that the whole family would have died a long time ago, not to mention the current official position and gradually rich family business. In his opinion, all this is given by Chen Wen, and besides, he is still Chen Wen's subordinate, if he can't even do his duty, it will be too unconscionable.

Guarding the fortress of Anhua Town, in order to share the pressure with his comrades who did their best to relieve the pressure on the southern front, Lin Zhongxiao knew very well where his position was, so when the Ming army went out to Quzhou, he began to wait for the day every day, but he didn't expect that the Qing army was really coming, and it seemed to be no different from before.

"That's not right! What is that? ”

Looking from afar, in the battle formation of the Qing army in the distance, a giant cannon tied with red silk was slowly moving forward in the Qing army using livestock to pull the artillery cart, although it was near and far small, but the long-term military experience made Lin Zhongxiao and some veterans of his subordinates quickly realize that the terrifying caliber of those giant cannons was not at all in the equipment of the Ming army.

"Hongyi Cannon!"

The city-breaking weapon brought by the Qing army is indeed the Hongyi cannon, which has not been used in previous offensive and defensive battles, both the Ming army and the Qing army. However, the Hongyi artillery is not all the same caliber, most of the artillery of the Ming army comes from capture, and it does not have the ability to cast such a huge caliber, and the Qing army in order to take into account the field battle, but also because the last time underestimated the defensive ability of the fortress and the way to Yiwu County has no city wall at all, so the Qing army did not carry too large caliber artillery.

Today, when most of the Jiangnan has been pacified, many generals have begun to forget their existence of this kind of giant cannon used to siege the city. However, Jin Li was a Han general who had been surrendered to the Qing Dynasty in the Nurhachi era, and he also existed in the creation of the Six Divisions and the Eight Banners of the Han Dynasty in the Huang Taiji Era, and he also knew very well about the Wuzhen Chaoha Heavy Army, the predecessor of the Eight Banners of the Han Dynasty. After entering the customs, he and Gushan Ezhen Yechen attacked Taiyuan with artillery to break the city, and there is no reason not to understand the advantages of this artillery.

Don't even say that it is Taiyuan, the large-caliber Hongyi cannon he brought this time cannot be resisted even by a giant city like Yangzhou, let alone such a fortress in front of him that can only accommodate a few hundred people.

Full of ambition, Jin Li gently stroked the body of the red cannon wrapped in red silk, as if caressing the smooth skin of his new wife. Even if Tian Xiong, Yu Fenqi, Xu Xin, Chang Jingong and other senior generals of the Qing army can understand it, they always feel a little uncomfortable.

"Let's get started."

As he spoke, Jin Li took this group of Qing army generals back to the banner of the Chinese army, and then the special artillery group of those cannons began to be busy.

The Red Cannon can improve its accuracy by adjusting the gun carriage, controlling the amount of gunpowder used, and using a crosshair, illuminator, and a series of specialized measuring tools to calculate the parabola. However, although the Ming and Qing armies of this era learned the technology of casting Hongyi cannons and could use them, they could only rely on experience in aiming, rather than scientific calculations.

With the busyness of those Han Eight Banner artillerymen, it took a long time to complete the work before the refill. When Jin Li gave an order, these Hongyi cannons emitted a deafening roar. Accompanied by the buzzing in the ears of the nearby Qing soldiers, orange-red flames erupted like volcanic eruptions from the muzzles of the cannons, and black shadows that could not be seen clearly at all.

The first test shot was really not very effective, but the large crater smashed by the huge cannonball in the ground in front of the low wall and the mud that stirred up by it immediately changed the color of those sections of the low wall.

Looking at everything in front of them, Lin Zhongxiao and his subordinates couldn't help but swallow a mouthful of saliva, this time it really didn't hit the city wall, but if it really hit the city wall, it was really hard to say what would happen.

However, after this fire, it was about ten minutes before the second round of shelling was belatedly under the watchful eye. And two of them, the moment they hit the low wall, they knocked down the two sections of rammed earth low wall without the slightest hesitation.

The Qing army in the distance seemed to have cheered, although it was still too early, but the Ming army who saw all this was like earth. Because they knew very well that the rammed-earth wall was far less solid than the rammed earth wall of the fortress where they were located, it was also a rammed earth wall. It collapsed in such a swoop that they couldn't keep their hearts in their stomachs as they did before.

Attention, so that the time seems to slow down, the Qing army's gunners are still about the same speed as just now, reset, clear the slag, load, and make all the preparations, but in the eyes of the Ming army, I don't know how long has passed. And what made them speechless the most was that with such an amazing range, the Ming army had no way at all.

After a long wait, the third round of shelling began, under the hopeful gaze of Jin Li, who had already stretched his neck.

The black cannonball shot out of the muzzle, crossed the perfect parabola, and smashed into the wall of the fortress at an alarming speed, only one cannonball was obviously not strong enough, and simply smashed on the mud bank of the moat, and splashed a rain of mud.

However, the huge kinetic energy carried by the cannons that hit the city wall startled the recruits who were already squatting on the ground and covering their ears, and even felt that the ground seemed to shake.

After a few moments, however, the recruits soon realized that their actions might cause displeasure among the officers. Fortunately, at this time, the officers were not interested in paying attention to them, and one by one they looked at the huge cannonballs on the city wall, as if they were already stunned.

One of the recruits who had been the first to return to normal hurriedly crossed the city like the others to see a cannonball that had hit the convex corner where they were, but what they saw was that the cannonball, which should have been embedded in the wall, had quietly fallen on the ground at the corner. The only thing on the convex wall where they were was was was a brick that cracked - it became shallower and shallower as it followed a spider's web, pointing to the angle between the two protrusions.

The cannonball began to move along the side of the convex corner as soon as it concentrated on the wall brick, until the last of its energy was discharged at the corner, and finally it landed weakly on the ground. In fact, even if it is directly smashed at the corner, the cannonball will not cause much damage, because although the raised angle is integrated with the fortress, it is also the outer building of the inner city wall, and there is a heavy city wall at the top of the corner to carry the enemy.

"I remember that the marshal mentioned that the former Jiliao Inspector said that the old slave was injured by the old man with this kind of Hongyi cannon, and he would die due to the recurrence of the old injury half a year later."

Hearing this, a trembling voice sounded amid the sound of a large amount of spittle. "Is that still a person, he won't be Ningyuan City who is carrying the fortress under our feet to fight Ningyuan City, right?!"

Shocked by the sheer power of these red cannons, and at the same time shocked by the terrifying ability of the fortress to resist attacks, the Qing army, which was too far away to know how much damage had been caused, continued their preparations. It wasn't until the Ming army had just recovered that a new round of shelling began......

After several rounds of shelling, the expected collapse of the city wall did not occur, and Jin Li's doubts could not be answered. Seeing this, Tian Xiong hurriedly put forward the suggestion that the ants should attack the city, even if he couldn't take the fortress in one go, he could always figure out what the effect of those rounds of artillery bombardment was.

The reasonable suggestion was immediately adopted, and the Qing army, which had been preparing for a long time, moved forward one after another, led by Xu Xin, the nephew of Xu Xin, the general of the Chinese army, the son-in-law of Yu Fenqi, who was in charge of the affairs of the Central Battalion as a deputy general, and Xu Lei, the brother-in-law of Li Ruixin, a beloved general under Chen Wen. At this moment, he was already in charge of the garrison of the left battalion as a guerrilla general, and this time several commanders of the Qing army in Hangzhou had high hopes for the Hongyi artillery, and of course they would send elite soldiers to "grab" this first-class achievement.

With Jin Li's military order issued, Xu Lei led most of the Levant Left Battalion to set off, and the old mandarin duck array in his hand was personally commanded by his henchman Liu Da. As long as the Hongyi cannon can collapse the city wall, or even only cause a relatively large degree of damage to the city wall, he will dig down the city wall at all costs, and finally rush in with the mandarin duck array in his hand to complete the destruction of the city.

The Qing army of the brigade began to roll forward, and Lin Zhongxiao hurriedly ordered his subordinates to take their positions, among which the fortress artillery positions and the artillery on the city walls would bombard the siege equipment as before, especially the lookouts.

However, the shock brought by the shelling just now and the ability of this fortress to resist the attack was far from subsiding, and an artillery crew panicked after the order was given, opened the fixed charge bag, poured the gunpowder into it for reloading, but forgot that they had completed the reloading of this artillery before the shelling......

A moment later, a bang rang out on the long convex wall of a bastion. The Qing army did not have the basic concept of infantry and artillery coordination, so when the lookout had traveled to a sufficient distance, they did not dare to open fire rashly, and this cannon was naturally not fired by them, but because the cannon was filled with twice as much gunpowder, it exploded!

Bombing is very common in the records of historical books, and it is a record of "shelling" and "cannon cracking" at every turn. After Chen Wen came to this era, he learned from Li Ruixin that Huang Degong's troops had never manufactured firearms from the Ministry of Labor's yamen, because those firearms were basically guaranteed to explode according to the normal loading amount, but if they were less loaded, they would not be powerful, and they would be far less effective than the artillery privately made by the local government or military towns.

Since Chen Wen led the troops, the artillery used was either from his own craftsmen or captured. Maintenance is still secondary, but there is certainly no dead pig that is not afraid of boiling water at the end of the Ming Dynasty Ministry of Industry Yamen's products. In addition, because the gunners knew the power of the guns, they never had the habit of loading according to the limit. But no matter how good the artillery is, twice the normal amount of gunpowder, it would be strange if it did not explode.

In an instant, the officers and soldiers on that convex corner were almost swept away by the power of the explosion, and even the vicinity was affected somewhat.

Lin Zhongxiao, the commander of the fortress in Anhua Town, fell to the ground, he was standing on the wall behind the protrusion, but the air wave of the explosion still knocked him to the ground, and along with a fragment of unknown origin, he cut off the fingers that he was still pointing forward to the Qing army and directing the attack.

In his right hand, the right hand of a military general holding a sword, his index and middle fingers were gone, and the splattered blood stained his other hand.

The battle to defend the city was about to begin, and enduring the pain in his heart, Lin Zhongxiao hurriedly got up and ordered the firefighters to move the corpses of the wounded and soldiers to the city, and then cleaned up the damaged guards on the convex corner, and then let the reserve team go up with spare artillery to fill it.

After a period of busyness, the garrison was finally restored. It was only then that Lin Zhongxiao had the opportunity to examine and bandage the military doctor who had just been pushed to the ground by him because he had obstructed the command of the battle, but as far as his eyes could see, it was not his right hand that was still in pain, but the Qing army who had already used the rushing car to destroy part of the low wall and rushed in.

The confusion caused by the explosion and the lack of defensive forces during that period led to the smooth advance of the Qing army on that front. When Lin Zhongxiao replanned the defense according to the fortress guarding the imperial drill, the Qing army had successfully approached the city, and the offensive and defensive battle of the fortress was opened again, and the opening ceremony was unfavorable to the Ming army. (To be continued.) )