readx; At about two o'clock in the morning, that is, around two o'clock in the morning, the sky over the battlefield suddenly returned to calm. The rebels who tried to smuggle across the Yellow River under the cover of night www.biquge.info were completely annihilated under the cover of fire, with casualties of at least five or six hundred people. In such a harsh environment, injury is equal to death, and the officers and soldiers who achieved this good result did not even really see the enemy.

Hit hard by this, the noise on the other side of the bank was much quieter, but there was no intention of retreating. Lu Xiangsheng breathed a sigh of relief and said: "Your Majesty, Hong Chengchou really used his troops to be cunning, but fortunately, General Meng fired into the river in time. If this sneak attack force was allowed to touch the embankment just now, the consequences would be unimaginable. ”

Of course, Zhu Youzhen knew in his heart that in night battles, "fire reconnaissance" was a very common method, but Lu Xiangsheng had never been in contact with it. However, Lu Xiangsheng's words also reminded him, after all, this embankment is still too narrow and too far away from the enemy army to be configured in depth. If the rebels' actions just now had been a little more stealthy and faster, they might have been able to break through to the embankment.

Therefore, Zhu Youzhen immediately summoned Meng Gong and said: "The rebels played a sneak attack, but we gave him the opposite way and attacked in a dignified manner." The first wave of the attack echelon can be dispatched! ”

"Yes... Rumble!! ”

Before Meng Gong's words fell, suddenly there was a loud thunderous sound somewhere on the opposite bank, followed by a rumbling sound on the ice about ten zhang in front of him, and a deep crater was smashed by a powerful cannonball, which caused a series of sounds of ice breaking, which sounded extremely terrifying.

Before Zhu Youzhen came back to his senses, he was slammed to the ground by Lu Xiangsheng. After a while, Lu Xiangsheng said extremely anxiously: "Oh no, I didn't expect the rebels to have artillery!" Your Majesty, it's not safe here, please move immediately! ”

At this time, Zhu Youzhen also understood that it must have been the rebels who pulled the artillery to the other side. Judging from the fact that it can hit so close to the embankment, it must be a Hongyi cannon. As for the source of the cannons, it is actually not surprising, the two important cities of Luoyang and Kaifeng have Hongyi cannons, and Hong Chengchou can transport them here. Although the Hongyi cannon is somewhat outdated, its maximum range is far more than two miles, which means that the cannonballs can not only hit the embankment, but even farther behind the embankment.

At this time, Zhu Youzhen had been forced down from the embankment by the soldiers of the Imperial City Guard Regiment, and according to Lu Xiangsheng's intentions, he had to continue to stay away from the battlefield. Zhu Youzhen refused to leave, and said stubbornly: "I hide behind the embankment, this is always okay, right?" The levee is a natural bunker, and I was safe until this section of the levee collapsed. Come down and discuss how to deal with the rebels' artillery! ”

Taking advantage of the gap before the enemy's artillery fired again, Zhu Youzhen, Lu Xiangsheng, Meng Gong and others held a brief meeting on the line of fire. At the moment, the situation they face is dangerous: the rebels also have long-range artillery, and they will not care about destroying the embankment, they will definitely fire it continuously. Although it may be inaccurate, once it hits, it will bring large casualties to the officers and soldiers.

Moreover, according to the observations of Meng Gong and his artillery officers, there were no obvious signs of fire on the opposite bank before the enemy shells came over. Perhaps the stacks of torches were too bright to conceal the flamethrows fired by the artillery, and in short, it was impossible to know the exact location of the enemy artillery, so it was impossible to aim and fire.

Zhu Youzhen pondered for a moment and said: "Now immediately distribute the artillery on the embankment as sparsely as possible, and then stop all shooting and pay attention to the opposite bank." The artillery of the rebels will definitely fire again, find its place, and then cover it with artillery fire at all costs! ”

The generals thought that this was the only way, although they would take some risks and might destroy the embankment on the opposite side, but now they couldn't take care of so much. Just like in the defense of the Kyoto Division, as long as you destroy the enemy's long-range artillery, you can be invincible, and it is worth paying some price for it.

The embankment was immediately busy, with the artillerymen and civilians busily shifting the various types of artillery, while the officers stared at the opposite bank with good eyes, trying to find the hiding place of the Hongyi cannon from the light generated by the torches.

Suddenly, there were two loud bangs, and one shell still fell near the point of impact of the first one. However, another shell hit the embankment directly, and only a bang was heard, and the fragile embankment was suddenly smashed into a large chunk by the huge impact force, stirring up dust in the sky. There was also a rapid-fire cannon and several artillery pieces on the embankment, all of which also fell into the river with the collapsed earthworks.

The nearby soldiers hurriedly went down to the bottom, desperately digging the earth with their hands to save people. Luckily, the artillerymen were quickly gouged out, and they suffered only some skin wounds, which were fine. The rapid-fire cannon was also dug up, but the chamber was filled with dirt and it took a long time to clean it up.

Meng Gong hurriedly asked the officers in charge of observation: "Do you see it?" Where did the shot come from? ”

The officers looked at each other for a long time before they became humane: "General, there is no flame from the artillery fire on the embankment... The general guessed that the enemy's artillery was probably hiding behind the embankment and firing! ”

When Meng Gong brought the news to Zhu Youzhen and Lu Xiangsheng, who were hiding in the bunker, they all fell silent. After a long time, Lu Xiang ascended and said: "Your Majesty, I am willing to lead the Tianxiong army to break through the river, find the cannon and blow it up!" ”

"No, no, no," Zhu Youzhen shook his head again and again, "Then it's Hong Chengchou's mistake." This old boy is really cunning! He hid the cannon behind the embankment, which was several feet high, so we naturally couldn't see it. But if we force our way across the river, the rebels will attack us by the embankment, just as we did against the rebels! You must know that this rebel army used to be an official army, and they not only had artillery, but also a lot of birds, and a strong attack would inevitably cause heavy casualties. I won't let him get his wish! ”

However, they did not know where the enemy's artillery was, so they could not cover it with firepower. Zhu Youzhen gritted his teeth and thought for a moment, and was about to make up his mind to order Meng Gong not to worry about the embankment anymore, and directly hit it with full firepower, when he suddenly heard a soldier outside scolding: "His grandmother's! There is no big tree on this embankment, and if there is, climb to the top of the tree and see where the bastards are hiding their cannons! ”

Hearing this, Zhu Youzhen, Lu Xiangsheng, and Meng Gong were shocked at the same time, and Meng Gong spoke first: "Holy Lord, we can build a lookout!" ”

"Use sandbags, quick!" Zhu Youzhen immediately said, "One is not safe, and two are built at the same time!" By the way, there must be no light near the lookout to prevent it from being spotted by enemy troops! ”