On the sixth day of the fifth month of the ninth year of the Yongli calendar of the Ming Dynasty (the twelfth year of Shunzhi in the Qing Dynasty), a generation of monks in Guangdong Province who were famous in Guangdong Province sat in Yutai Temple, and left Zen words before dying: "This is not to enter the Western Heaven Bliss, but to enter the hell of the nose to relieve the suffering of the world." ”

After the death of the monk Qilin, the Ming Taiping Army thousands of households and Zhou Shi were buried in the stele forest of the back mountain, and the monks were all praised.

After the news of the death of the monk Qilin came out, there was a small monk in the south of Xinhui City who looked at Guifeng Mountain, gritted his teeth, and made a grand wish, "In this life, the thief will not be destroyed to avenge the teacher, and he will not be a man", and after the oath, he went to Guangzhou to join the army

The Guards Battalion, under the response of the Hujie Battalion, escorted the grain team to Guifeng Mountain in the evening, although the road was hard, the road was extremely difficult to walk, but fortunately, no people escaped, and no cars and horses overturned.

After reporting that the guard camp had arrived, Zhou Shixiang immediately ordered to go down, and the guard camp did not have to go up the mountain, but camped in the Qing army camp at the bottom of the mountain, and the food and people were also placed in it, and the Hujie battalion was responsible for guarding and guarding, and the rest rested immediately.

Later, Zhou Shixiang ordered the officers above the general flag of each battalion to go to the Daxiong Hall of Yutai Temple to discuss the attack on Xinhui City.

Due to the fact that Li Dingguo's army attacked Xinhui for a long time last year, the generals were not optimistic about seizing Xinhui above the military discussion, and Qin Zhisheng and others even proposed that they should not attack Xinhui City, but find a way to collect ships to cross the Tan River and go around to the rear of Xinhui City.

A detour to take the Tan River can avoid the losses caused by the storming of Xinhui, which is undoubtedly a wise choice for the Taiping army that has just experienced heavy losses in a major war, but how to collect ships is a trouble, not to mention whether there are ships on the Tan River for the Taiping army to use, and even if there is, the Taiping army does not have time to collect enough ships to cross the river with all the troops and horses.

If they stayed in the Xinhui area for too long, the Taiping army would fall into a situation where Xinhui was fortified in front and surrounded by the Qing army. The guards of Xinhui City are not stupid as long as their brains are not stupid. At this time, he should have sent fast horses to Guangzhou for help, and Xu Erxian, the commander-in-chief of Zhaoqing in the rear, also figured out the intentions of the Taiping army, and this will probably be chasing after the troops. Wait until the main forces of the Qing army, which Zhou Shixiang has been trying his best to avoid, come over. There is really no way to go to heaven and no way to go down.

"Don't think about anything else, guys. Xinhui City must be fought and taken, otherwise, the whole army will be a dead end! ”

Zhou Shixiang once again reaffirmed his determination to attack Xinhui City.

"If Qianhu must fight Xinhui City, then the humble duty has to remind Qianhu Lord that there are more than a dozen red-clothed general cannons on the Xinhui city wall."

The one who spoke was Li Fuguo, the test hundred households of the Guards Battalion, and he was also considered conscientious after being appointed as the test hundred households of the Guards Battalion, and his performance in the process of escorting the grain team with the Guards Battalion was also remarkable. With his previous experience as the commander of the Green Battalion, to a certain extent, he made up for some of the details caused by the bald Jiang He's rough personality, and he cooperated happily with another trial hundred households in the Guards Battalion, at least Jiang He did not privately report anything wrong with Li Fuguo to Zhou Shixiang after going up the mountain.

"The Red General's Cannon?"

Zhou Shixiang was a little stunned, not knowing what kind of cannon this was. Shao Jiugong on the side hurriedly told him that the so-called red-clothed general cannon was actually the Hongyi cannon of the Ming Dynasty, but because of the avoidance of the word Yi, Huang Taiji renamed the Hongyi cannon as the red-clothed general cannon.

Hongyi cannon was purchased from Macao by the Ming Dynasty during the Chongzhen period, when Kong Youde led his troops to cross the sea to surrender to the Manchu Qing Dynasty after the rebellion in Denglai, because he captured a lot of Ming Dynasty artillerymen in Denglai. So the Manchu Qing Dynasty asked him to make cannons for the Qing army, and the cannons made by Kong Youde at that time were modeled after the Hongyi cannons, and most of the people who operated the artillery in the Qing army were the bastards who forgot their ancestors in the Han Army Banner. ”

Song Xianggong said so. Zhou Shixiang immediately understood. Li Fuguo deliberately showed his knowledge, and followed Song Xianggong's words and went on, but he talked about the advantages and disadvantages of this Hongyi cannon.

Combined with what Li Fuguo said, coupled with his own judgment, Zhou Shixiang can roughly confirm that the performance of the Hongyi cannon is about the same as that used by the Europeans in the same period, and they are all front-loading artillery. The disadvantage of front-loading guns is that the rate of fire is extremely slow, and after one fire, it must be filled with water into the chamber and extinguished the fire star. Dry the gun with a dry cloth and stick into the chamber to dry, and then fill it with gunpowder. Combustibles, stuffed with shells. Then it was clicked, and these movements were rather slow and cumbersome, not including correcting the gun emplacements.

However, the advantage of the disadvantages is that the lethality of the Hongyi cannon is extremely great, in a straight line, the cannonball can cross dozens of people, and when it falls to the ground and jumps the pit, it can even smash people and horses to pieces. Although it is not as powerful as the flowering shells in later generations, the scene of the cannonballs flying in as soon as the cannon sound is still really terrifying.

Song Xianggong said something again, saying that the old slave Nuer Hachi was killed by calling Hongyi cannons under Ningyuan City back then. Shao Jiugong and Li Fuguo were a little unimpressed after hearing this, thinking that they had never heard of such a thing.

Whether the old slave was killed by the Hongyi cannon, Zhou Shixiang didn't care, what he cared about was how to deal with the dozen Hongyi cannons and the number of small cannons on Xinhui City. He had heard a famous saying in his previous life, saying that artillery is the king of war, although the king of war will continue to be replaced by new weapons in the future, such as tanks, etc., but before the emergence of new weapons, the power of cannons is indeed the big brother in the weapons of the same period, especially in China in the 17th century, in this era is still dominated by cold weapons, the impact of artillery on war is absolutely huge.

The most intuitive thing is that when your soldiers rush to the city wall, the city is constantly flying cannonballs to harvest human lives, and your own side can only be beaten and can't do it.

Zhou Shixiang must come up with a way to deal with the artillery, otherwise as soon as the cannon sounds, the Taiping army, which has never heard the sound of artillery and has never seen artillery, may really be helpless against Xinhui City.

After pondering, Zhou Shixiang asked a question that he urgently needed to know.

"How far can the Hongyi cannon hit?"

"This?"

Few of the officers had ever seen the Hongyi cannon, so how far could this shell go. Song Xianggong has not seen it with his own eyes, but Qin Zhisheng, Shao Jiugong, and Li Fuguo have seen it, but the answers given by the three of them are different as to how far this Hongyi cannon can hit.

Qin Zhisheng said that the Hongyi cannon could fight seven or eight miles, but Shao Jiugong said that it was not that far, and it could only be two or three miles. Li Fuguo gave only a number of Lixu.

Which one is right, Zhou Shixiang can't judge, and everyone can't say for sure.

"Qianhu asked what this is for?"

Song Xianggong didn't blindly guess which of the three was right. What he cared about was what Zhou Shixiang wanted to do.

"This time our army attacked Xinhui City, I discussed this matter with Tie Baihu as early as when I was in high power. At that time, I was determined to blow up the Xinhui city wall by blasting, and then the whole army broke through the gap, and now I still don't change my decision, we don't attack Xinhui City, and we don't have the capital to attack, the tens of thousands of troops of the King of Xining can't take Xinhui City, and my Taiping Army can take it with just two thousand men? So we have only one way to blast! ”

After a pause, Zhou Shixiang explained: "But before that. We must find out how far the Qing army's artillery can hit, so that we can dig tunnels outside the range of their artillery and bury the gunpowder under the city wall, otherwise the gunpowder will not be able to be sent in, and besides, we can't be called the Qing army's artillery to blow up alive. ”

"Blasting?"

Among the officers, only Li Fuguo had never heard of this term, and he didn't know what it meant for a while, and Lin Zhengsheng on the side explained a few words to him, and then he suddenly realized, but then he had a look of suspicion.

In Li Fuguo's cognition. In the past, the battle to seize the city was mostly to bombard the city wall with artillery, but Zhou Shixiang had to use gunpowder blasting to blow up the city wall. He had never reported this method, and subconsciously felt that this method was inappropriate, or it was unlikely to achieve the goal, so the city wall could easily blow up the gunpowder?

"Qianhu, the method of blasting really works? Tie Baihu, can they really blow up Xinhui City? ”

General Li Fuguo asked suspiciously, after all, he had never seen the blasting test done by Zhou Shixiang in Luodingzhou City, and he did not know the power of granule gunpowder.

Zhou Shixiang nodded affirmatively: "Yes!" Come with me. ”

After finishing speaking, he got up and walked towards the trapped camp with everyone, Tie Yi already knew what Lord Qianhu was going to do, and ordered someone to carry out the two big coffins in the camp early.

See the two huge reinforced coffins. Li Fuguo was really stunned, after listening to Tie Yi say the purpose of these two coffins. He stared at it for a while before shaking his head, and said to Zhou Shixiang with some concern: "These two big coffins are too big for the target. The Qing army in Xinhui City is not blind, how can they be under the city wall, if they are transported by manpower, they are afraid that they will not be able to reach the place, they will be hit by the artillery in the city or shot by their firearms, so wouldn't it be in vain? ”

What Li Fuguo said is the truth, so much gunpowder piled up in two coffins, the power is certainly amazing, but even if it can blow up the walls of Xinhui City, who can guarantee that it will not be hit by the Qing army during transportation. Gunpowder is not a joke, it will explode when it touches a spark, and if it is blown up before it is delivered to the city wall, it will really blow up a piece of its own people.

Zhou Shixiang smiled softly: "So we must find out how far the artillery on Xinhui City can hit, only by knowing the range of their artillery, can we safely dig tunnels and send the coffin to the city wall." ”

"How many miles of tunnels do you have to dig to make it?" Li Fuguo's face was pale.

Zhou Shixiang's eyes looked at Tie Yi and said, "Don't forget, Tie Baihu and his brothers are all from the mines, and what they are best at is digging pits and digging holes. ”

"Last year, when the army of the old thief King Xining besieged the city, the Qing army in the city set up large vat monitoring everywhere, trapping the camp and digging tunnels, it is impossible for the Qing army not to notice, if the defenders find out that we are digging tunnels, isn't it still useless?" Li Fuguo judged that this method was still useless based on his own experience.

This time, there was no need for Zhou Shixiang to answer, but Tie Yi smiled there and said, "We don't dig tunnels to lead to his city, or what can we do if they listen to them!" ”

Zhou Shixiang's face suddenly turned grim: "Tie Yi, can you be 100% sure about the authentic matter?" ”

"Thousands of households rest assured, our brothers from the mine will not be anything else, this digging pit and making holes is the best, but the last general will guarantee to send these two big coffins in, and personally ignite it to blow up the city wall of Xinhui, if the last general is bad, there is no need for thousands of households to call someone to do it, the last general will wipe his neck by himself, saving thousands of households and everyone to scold the mother of the last general!" (To be continued)