Don't look at Geng Jingzhong's defense to be leaky, but it is precisely because of this "fully closed" defense that they have exposed an Achilles' heel: the effective counterattack means of the defenders of Xuzhou are too simple...........

The surrounding gates were completely sealed, and the moat water from the Grand Canal prevented the feasibility of digging tunnels. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

Therefore, the only way for both the attacker and the defender to enter and exit Xuzhou is to climb over the nearly five-story city wall (about 15 meters).

Since ancient times, almost no one will block all the city gates, because in this way, it is equivalent to self-exclusion, it can be said that such a means of defense, when the city is broken, the defenders of Xuzhou do not even have a place to escape, and they can not even cooperate with the reinforcements, and the enemy outside the city should be combined inside and outside.

Geng Jingzhong did this, did he really have the heart of death?

In fact, he is just trying to get enough political capital.

Nan Ming basically has zero tolerance for generals like him (to put it bluntly, the leader of the traitors), and if he wants to save his life, he must first work hard.

Geng Jingzhong knew that the main target of the Ming army was the Manchu Qing, and it was obviously not cost-effective to waste too much energy and time to deal with him, and even let Dolgon escape back to the Guanwai.

As long as you can withstand this time and firmly grasp the initiative, until Nanming can't sit still, not only can you save your life at that time, but maybe you can also keep your current power and status.

Geng Jingzhong desperately defended Xuzhou, it was with such an idea that Zhu Youzhen urged to end the battle south of the Yellow River as soon as possible, and he also did not want to be coerced by Geng Jingzhong, Shang Kexi and others............

Guo Sheng's statement is correct, as long as the Ming army can gain a firm foothold on the city wall, so that the defenders of Xuzhou can not see a trace of hope of resistance, then taking Xuzhou will be just around the corner.

"Everyone understands the truth, but Xuzhou now has no less than 70,000 troops, even if it is divided into four waves to garrison the city wall, the city wall can be piled up!" Zhang Chao said.

It is far more difficult to take a ladder to the city than to go directly to the city from the auxiliary road in the city.

"That's not necessarily, Yang Xiu's special forces have recently added a new weapon, which may be able to suppress the defenders on the city wall." Guo Sheng has already had a countermeasure.

"Yang Xiu brought it in? Then Master Li .........." Zhang Chao pointed out.

"Ten days ago, Lord Li entered the palace to have a secret conversation with the saint, and it was after that that the special forces evacuated Nanjing and officially participated in the Northern Expedition." Guo Sheng replied.

In fact, when Li Hong flew into the palace, the biggest reliance was Yang Xiu's special forces, and later he reached an agreement with Zhu Youzhen, and he was about to leave Nanjing, so the special forces naturally did not need to continue to lurk, and they could join the Northern Expedition.

"What are you hiding from me?" Stilwell heard a hint of clues.

Although the special forces are subordinate to the First Group Army, they are directly under the jurisdiction of Guo Sheng, and after Stilwell took over the First Group Army, this force gradually faded out of the sequence of the First Group Army, and there were too many things in the group army, and Stilwell did not care too much about this force, which was only 200 people.

"This matter, I will explain it to you slowly in the future, what we are discussing now is to involve the special forces in the siege of the city, I believe that with the weapons provided by the special forces, three days...... No, there are only two days left, and there is no problem at all in taking Xuzhou in two days! Guo Sheng turned the conversation back to today's siege warfare.

"So confident? Let's talk about it. Stilwell didn't dig deeper.

He understood that the waters of the First Group Army were very deep, and with his current qualifications, he could not replace Li Hongfei's position in the First Group Army at all, and it was better to pretend to be confused about some things...........

Although Guo Sheng and others submitted a new battle plan, Qi Zhifeng's attack on the second day still did not stop.

The special forces have not yet arrived, and Qi Zhifeng wants to fight again.

Outside the east gate of Xuzhou, more than 300 Furlong machines and Hongyi cannons are lined up, and the muzzles of the cannons are pointed directly at the city wall of Xuzhou.

Every 500 meters in the artillery array, a hot air balloon will be raised, as the eyes of the artillery, this new tactic of the Ming artillery was only applied after the Northern Expedition, and made great contributions when encircling and suppressing the 20,000 cavalry of Shang Kexi.

The artillery has eyes, and its accuracy has increased by almost three percent.

With Qi Zhifeng's order, more than 300 artillery pieces roared in unison, and the city wall of Xuzhou was instantly surrounded by a sea of fire.

"The engineer company listened to the order and built a pontoon bridge!"

To get close to the city walls, you must first cross a moat more than four meters wide outside the city.

The moat was about three hundred meters from the city walls, and the range of firearms on the city walls was not enough, but the crossbows were different.

Tang Li Jing's "Weigong Art of War: Offensive and Defensive Combat Equipment": "With one shot of his teeth, all arrows rise together, and six hundred steps." The city fortress in the center was all destroyed, and the building was also upside down. It is called a crossbow. ”

From this, it can be seen that the firing range of the crossbow reached almost 800 meters, which was more than enough to deal with the engineering company on the moat.

Fortunately, the Ming army had artillery cover at this time, which greatly reduced the accuracy of the crossbows, and even some of the unlucky crossbows were hit by shells and exploded directly into powder.

In the end, after the engineer company lost more than a dozen people in the battle, four pontoon bridges were finally built.

"A battalion carries ladders and flintlock pistols as the vanguard. The second battalion carried knives and axes, fast gunners (revolvers), and when the first battalion set up a ladder, they would attack me. After the three battalions, ready for reinforcements at any time! "A regimental commander in charge of the main attack began to issue combat missions.

Each battalion had their own tasks, and one battalion was responsible for clearing obstacles, mainly suppressing fire points on the ramparts, and erecting ladders.

The second battalion is the main attacking force, and the bayonet is obviously not as practical as the saber in siege warfare, so the second battalion has become a "broadsword team", and with the revolver, its assault ability is still very terrifying.

Although the third battalion is a reserve, their task is not light, once the second battalion attacks the city wall, the third battalion is the fastest backup force, and must be hit as soon as possible to assist the second battalion to expand the results on the city wall.

Once the attack of the second battalion failed, the third battalion was the main force to cover the retreat of the other troops and be responsible for the rear of the palace.

As soon as the first battalion rushed forward eight or nine hundred meters, about six hundred meters from the city wall (three hundred meters away from the moat), it began to be hit by Qing artillery from inside the city.

The artillery of the Qing army today is mostly the rear loading gun of the Furlong machine, and the firing range of the loaded solid bullet is only 1100 meters (45 degrees of maximum elevation angle), and the city wall blocks the firing boundary, the Qing army's artillery cannot attack the target within the moat (parabolic principle, if there is a higher object in the middle to block, but can not hit the target closer to the blocking object, that is to say, the closer the Ming army is to the city wall, the more it will not be shelled) but at a distance of 400 ~ 600 meters from the city wall, which happens to be in the area covered by the Qing army's artillery.

Previously, the engineer company rushed too fast, and the Qing artillery did not have time to react, so they rushed out of their range, and now a battalion launched a large-scale charge, which naturally became the main target of the Qing artillery.

The Qing army's artillery fire was in full swing, and the crossbows on the city wall were used for the second time, and the soldiers of the first battalion lost more than a dozen people before they could break through the moat.

"Order the artillery observers, find out the Qing army's firepower points, and kill them for me!" Qi Zhifeng, who was in charge of the front-line commander-in-chief, began to respond.

As Qi Zhifeng's order was issued, those observers who stood on the hot air balloon and had already marked the firepower points of the Qing army began to wave flags.

After receiving the flag, the artillery regiment below also adjusted the firing angle, and after some adjustments, the artillery array opened fire again and flew towards the artillery position of the Qing army.

Playing artillery bombardment, the Qing army is far from being the opponent of the Ming army, and the artillery surveying and mapping major of the Nanjing Military Academy makes the artillery units of the Ming army fire, no longer by feeling and experience, but with real scientific basis and data support.

Although there will be a lot of deviations in the final impact point due to the performance of the weapon, compared with the "blind cat touching the dead mouse" of the Qing artillery, the Ming artillery can be regarded as a precision strike.

Coupled with the range of weapons and the power of cannonballs, the two sides were almost one-sided in the artillery battle (the range of the Ming army's Furlong machine gun was 1,500 meters, which was just enough to avoid the range of the crossbow attack and effectively hit the artillery positions of the Qing army in the city).

The Qing artillery only fired three salvos, and then completely muted the fire, such a thing, they have experienced many times, the Ming artillery is like having eyes, and there is no way to defend it.

It is not realistic to want to transfer the gun position, and the best way is to evacuate all the personnel who fired the gun after three rounds, and it is all up to luck whether these gun positions can be preserved in the end.........

Since the start of the war, the Qing army has lost more than 70 artillery pieces, but the benefits are not without benefits, because once the Ming artillery is contained, the soldiers on the city wall can also be quickly deployed in place, compared to the city wall, the loss of some artillery is still acceptable.

After the artillery battle between the two sides, the battle returned to the city wall again, and a battalion had arrived at the foot of the city wall, at this time the artillery of the Ming army did not dare to attack the city wall, because that would only injure their own people by mistake.

Whether it can succeed or not, the key is to see whether the second battalion can attack the city wall.

The Qing army, as always, threw grenades at the Ming troops under the city walls.

Some brave Ming soldiers directly snuffed out this copycat version of the grenade (the grenade of the Qing army is an exposed lead, if the lead is too long, tearing off the lead can prevent the explosion), and even more soldiers picked up the grenade on the ground and threw it back to the Qing army on the city wall.........

From the very beginning, the battle entered the white heat, and the only means of attack of the Ming army was the flintlock pistol, but in terms of shooting position and firepower density, it was not comparable to the Qing army on the city wall.

Although the flintlock pistols of the Qing army were slower, they could win in a large number, and there were city walls for cover, unless the Ming army was a sharpshooter, otherwise under the fire, it was only the Ming army that suffered.

"It's still an old routine, there's nothing new, it doesn't take long for this regiment to lose again." Zhang Chao put down the binoculars and couldn't help but pout.

In his opinion, the battle has been fought so far, Qi Zhifeng's army is still the same as a few days ago, and has not come up with any new routines.

"Not really, you look at the areas where the artillery suppressed." Guo Sheng pointed to a few points on the city wall and said to Zhang Chao.

The artillery of the Ming army did not dare to bombard the area where the ground forces of the Ming army were located, but selectively covered several key points on the city wall.

"Oh! It's kind of interesting........ It seems that Qi Zhifeng also knows how to suppress the enemy's follow-up reinforcements. It's a pity that because of the artillery, even if you know the weakness of the other party, it is difficult to hit those positions directly, otherwise it is really possible to take Xuzhou in one day by concentrating the existing artillery. Zhang Chao said with a smile.

The space on the city wall is too narrow, and the number of troops placed will naturally not be too many, and it is only possible to defend the city wall by relying on the continuous dispatch of troops under the city wall.

However, the parabolic principle was not only applicable to the Qing artillery, but also to the Ming artillery, which could not strike at the Ming army within 300 meters of the city wall after crossing the city wall.

The artillery of the Ming army, too, had no way to attack the reinforcements in the city that were close to the city wall after crossing the city wall.

Even if Qi Zhifeng concentrated hundreds of artillery pieces and bombarded the few auxiliary roads (stone slabs of the stairs in the inner city) where the Qing army climbed the city wall, not a single shell could really hit.

All the shells that were fired either flew into the city and landed in an empty space, or they smashed directly on the city wall, leaving craters on the thick city wall.

"Of course, if you concentrate artillery and bombard it for three days and three nights, you can also blow up those few points, and then it will be more troublesome for the Qing army to go to the city, and our army will have a chance of winning." Guo Sheng said.

It is not realistic to blow up the city wall, but it is not impossible to concentrate artillery fire and blow up a few gaps in the battlements of part of the city wall, and even the passages on the city wall.

As long as there is a gap above the city wall, the reinforcement speed of the Qing army can be slowed down, and the battle space will be compressed a lot, which is the opportunity for the Ming army to attack.

"It's a pity that Qi Zhifeng can't wait for three days, but he has made a military order." Zhang Chao teased.

"Qi Shuai, let Commander Qi withdraw his troops, if you continue to fight, you will only suffer greater losses." Stilwell suddenly said to Qi Hongying, who had been silent on the side.

Outside Xuzhou City, the second battalion that was climbing the ladder had already suffered more than half of the casualties, and no soldier had climbed the city wall until now.

Qi Hongying thought for a while, and finally sighed, and said to the herald on the side: "Tell Qi Zhifeng to let the troops withdraw." ”

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PS: About Geng Jingzhong, it's actually my mistake, Geng Jingzhong was born in 1644, and the characters in the text should be Geng Jingzhong's grandfather, Geng Zhongming, the king of Jingnan, but I haven't noticed it before, it's too troublesome to change, so I can only continue to write it down, please forgive me.

In addition, I laid out two whole chapters in the article, I don't know if you guessed, what new weapons did Yang Xiu's special forces bring?

Hurry up and guess.,The answer will be revealed tomorrow.,Although there's no prize for guessing correctly.,But still ask for a subscription and recommendation ticket.。