In the early morning of 24 April, the Qing army mobilized 320 Hongyi cannons and bombarded the north gate of Yangzhou City, opening the prelude to the war. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

The north gate was bombarded by heavy artillery, and Shi Kefa's first reaction was: the main direction of attack of the Qing army was the north gate.

So, of course, most of the troops in the city were mobilized to defend the north gate.

"Hurry, hurry! Put on the sandbags and block the gates! ”

The weakest part of the city wall is the city gate, although it was sealed earlier, but the Qing army's artillery is powerful, and under the continuous bombardment, the city gate has long been unrecognizable.

In order to plug the gap, the soldiers had to bring in a large number of sandbags to block the city gates.

"Boom!"

A cannonball hit the city gate again, the heavy city gate was completely torn apart, the huge impact of the cannonball, directly overturned the piled sandbags, a soldier who was carrying sandbags up, was pushed more than ten meters away by this huge force, fell on the side of the road, his body bounced, he didn't move, I don't know whether he fainted, or died.

Another soldier was even more unlucky, and the other person did not go up under the sandbag, but the sandbag was dumped, and thousands of pounds of sand and soil were buried directly at the bottom.

"Come and two people carry him down, don't get in the way here, don't worry about the one buried underneath, continue to pile up the sandbags!" The officer in charge of directing the gagged mouth pointed to the soldier lying on the side of the road and said loudly.

The soldier who fell on the side of the road was quickly carried away, and the soldier buried under the sandbag, whether he was alive or not, would no longer be rescued by anyone.

In order to seize the time to plug the gap, the soldier was directly used as a humanoid sandbag..........

The soldiers guarding the city gate were urgently repairing the gap, and the soldiers on the city wall were not having a good time.

In order to block the attacking troops of the Qing army, a certain number of soldiers must be left on the city wall, and the Qing army in order to clear the obstacles, the city defense equipment above the city wall is the main target of the Hongyi cannon.

A cannon hit the lookout wall above the city wall, and because the wall had withstood many shellings, this time it finally could not withstand it and exploded directly.

The flying rubble quickly swept towards the Ming soldiers who were squatting nearby, and half of the head of an unlucky guy was directly cut off, and the blood was mixed with brains, splashing the bodies of several soldiers around, red, white, and terrible.

"Ahh I don't want to die, I can't die, I'm going out! One of the soldiers shouted, stood up, ran to the lookout wall, and leaped out of the wall.

Finally, one of the soldiers could not stand this atmosphere, went completely insane, and committed suicide.

"Shoot back, hit their artillery array!" Liu Zhaoji, the governor of the left capital, ordered artillery to return fire.

For the Hongyi cannon, Shi Kefa himself also knew its importance.

It was he who suggested in the sixteenth year of Chongzhen's reign that the old and clumsy "artifacts" of the Nanjing Armory should be replaced with lighter "three-eyed guns" (i.e., three-barreled guns) and more powerful general cannons (Hongyi cannons).

Therefore, after Zhu Youzhen took charge of the Nanjing regime and reused Shi Kefa, Shi Kefa made great efforts to modify his artillery team and invested a lot of military funds to let Xu Guangqi's student Chen Yujie make this new Hongyi cannon for him.

Chen Yujie studied under Xu Guangqi, and in order for the Ming Dynasty to build more powerful firearms, he once endured humiliation and worshiped a Catholic church foundry that changed his religious beliefs, just to learn the casting techniques of the Hongyi cannon.

Even the Hongyi cannon of Suzhou Heavy Industry uses the technology of Chen Yujie.

And this time Guo Sheng's rescue target naturally also includes Chen Yujie, a craftsman.

The number of Hongyi cannons on the northern wall is small, only fifty Hongyi cannons erected along the stone wall on wooden platforms.

These cannons were originally used to attack the ground forces of the Qing army, but now the opposite side has been bombarded continuously for an hour, but not a single soldier has been dispatched, if the Ming army does not counterattack, the morale in the city will be gone.

Both sides are Hongyi cannons, the range is about the same, although the number of Ming artillery is small, but there is a certain advantage, that is, the Ming artillery has a stone wall as a cover, unless it is a direct hit, it is difficult to be destroyed.

With Liu Zhaoji's order to return fire, fifty cannons began to fire at the Qing army's artillery array, relying on the advantage of the bunker, and even had the upper hand for a while..........

"Something is wrong, this Qing army has been shelling for three hours, but has not sent a single soldier, is it possible that it is not a true plan to directly collapse the entire city wall?" Guo Sheng muttered to himself.

He was an instructor of the Suzhou New Army, and at the same time, he often exchanged knowledge of firearms with Li Hongfei, and Guo Sheng still had a lot of experience on how to maximize the use of firearms.

According to the intensity of the artillery attack now, the Qing army should have charged a long time ago, at this time the spirit of the Ming soldiers was close to the critical point, once this time was missed, the big guys were numb, and the offensive effect would definitely be much worse at that time.

And the most important point is that although the Hongyi cannon is powerful, due to the quality of the steel, the shelling for three consecutive hours has reached the limit of the barrel bearing, and now the artillery density of the Qing army is not as fierce as it was at the beginning, which is the best proof.

"Wouldn't it be better if they didn't attack, so that Yangzhou City could defend one more day." Shi Kefa now just wants to stick to one day at a time.

But at this moment, a soldier hurriedly came to report that the south gate was also besieged by the Qing army.

"What's the situation, is it serious?" Shi Kefa asked.

Previously, the north gate was shelled, and a group of generals regarded the Qing army's attack as the north gate, but three hours have passed, and the north gate is still continuing the artillery battle.

"When he left, the south gate was temporarily unhindered, and General Dewei (Shi Kefa's son Shi Dewei) felt that it was a feint attack of the Qing army, so that the adults did not need to worry." The herald replied.

At this time, the south gate of Yangzhou did suffer from the attack of the Qing army, but it was all thunder and rain, and it seemed that a large number of soldiers were sent to charge, but whenever the Ming army returned fire, they quickly withdrew one by one, not like attacking the city at all, but like consuming the weapons and ammunition of the Ming army, or pretending to attack, trying to attract the attention of the defenders in the city.

Originally, this kind of small-scale harassment could be easily dealt with by Shi Dewei alone, but Shi Kefa was the commander guarding Yangzhou City, and if there was a danger at the south gate, he naturally had to report it as soon as possible.

"Is there enough equipment to defend the city over there? Do you want me to have a batch of arrows and ammunition go there? Shi Kefa was a little uneasy and asked again.

Shi Kefa's idea is that he is not afraid of 10,000, he is afraid of what happens, except for the cannonballs on the north gate, the other materials for defending the city have basically not moved at all, looking at this posture, I don't know when the Qing army will attack, if Nanming is really in trouble, it can support a batch of weapons, and even soldiers in the past.

"Don't worry, my lord, the south gate guards the city are abundant, and there is no need for support for the time being." The herald said.

Stilwell didn't know the specific situation of the North Gate, and when he heard the rumbling of the North Gate cannons, he thought that the fight was inextricable, and where could he open his mouth to ask for support.