readx; As soon as the artillery of the official army roared, the other side of the Yellow River suddenly shook with a loud sound of killing, and at the same time, countless torches were raised at once, like a fire dragon suddenly rising from the night. Due to www.biquge.info the distance, it is impossible to see how many torches there are, and the length can only be judged to be at least ten miles. With so many torches, it can only tell one thing: the main forces of the rebels have already gone up the embankment.

"Your Majesty, the minister thinks it's a little strange!" Lu Xiangsheng said suddenly.

"Do you want to say that it is a bit unreasonable for the rebels to light torches?" Zhu Youzhen also thought about it.

"Exactly!" Lu Xiangsheng said, "It stands to reason that the rebels know that the officers and soldiers are equipped with a large number of firearms, and they light torches in the middle of the night, isn't it exposing themselves? Hong Chengchou has been in battle for a long time, so he shouldn't have made such a mistake..."

Zhu Youzhen couldn't guess what the rebels' intentions were, so he pretended to smile lightly: "Then leave him alone, maybe Hong Chengchou will occasionally make a fool and think that he can use the number of people to intimidate us?" As long as our army cares carefully, it is useless for him to play with flowers. Didn't they light the torches? That's right, let's get him a fire preparation first! ”

At this time, Meng Gong had already transferred all the artillery to the embankment. On this trip to Beijing, Meng Gong brought three Yuanrong cannons, twelve Xiaoyao cannons, thirty-six rapid-fire cannons and six flowering cannons. The reason why I walked on the road for so long has something to do with these bulky big guys. However, the strength of the people was large, and although the Yuanrong cannon weighed a thousand catties, dozens of artillerymen and civilians shouted the horn to lift it up, and the cannon was quickly deployed. As for the lighter weight of the Easy Gun and the rapid-fire gun, this is not to mention. Although these artillery pieces were only a small part of the total number of artillery pieces of the Beijing Division, their firepower should not be underestimated because they were all deployed along the line of the northern embankment of the Yellow River.

The south embankment of the Yellow River is about two miles from the north bank, and only the effective range of the Yuanrong cannon can reach it. Meng Gong ordered the artillery to fire the Yuan Rong cannon first, anyway, there was a fire dragon on the opposite side, and it was very easy to aim.

"Boom, boom!" Three loud bangs shook the entire embankment, and the clods of earth on the embankment fell down with a clatter. Accompanied by a dazzling fiery snake, three red-hot cannonballs whistled out of their chambers, and in an instant, they accurately smashed down on the South Embankment, two miles away. I saw that the torches near the bullet point were obviously dimmed, and many of them fell to the river beach in the embankment, just like a fire dragon being cut off by the waist. Obviously, this round of volleys must have caused some casualties to the rebels.

But Zhu Youzhen suddenly realized a problem and hurriedly shouted: "Stop!" Stop shooting! ”

"It's... Your Majesty, but why? Meng Gong was blasted, but was interrupted by the emperor, of course, very depressed.

Zhu Youzhen was even more depressed than him, patted his thigh and said, "Hey! Why didn't I think of this, this levee can't help but bombard! ”

Only then did everyone suddenly realize that the reason why the "fire dragon" broke was not only to blow up the people above, but to directly collapse the Yellow River embankment. If this is a siege, then the embankment is equivalent to the city wall, and it is best to collapse it, and if it collapses, the defenders will only have to surrender. But now it is different, this is the Yellow River embankment, and it doesn't matter if it collapses now, but once spring begins, Lingxun and Taohuaxun will pass through here successively, and this badly damaged embankment must completely burst. Wouldn't that be a catastrophe?

"What a cunning Hong Chengchou!" Lu Xiangsheng couldn't help but gasp and said, "He deliberately used torches to mark the location of the rebels, so that we could cast a mouse trap!" ”

But knowing this, Zhu Youzhen had no choice but to let the Yuanrong cannon stop firing, and he couldn't destroy the Yellow River embankment that his predecessors had worked hard to build for hundreds of years because of this battle.

The rebels on the opposite side were bombarded by Yuan Rong's cannon just now, and they were a little calm. Now seeing that the officers and soldiers were no longer firing artillery, they immediately became jubilant again, and the clamor and shouting for killing were louder than just now. The lungs of the artillerymen were about to explode, and they all scolded angrily: "What are you shouting, don't you win if you are not beaten?" ”

This sentence woke Zhu Youzhen up, and he hurriedly said: "That's right! The rebels lit torches, and if only to keep us from shelling, then they would not be able to hit us. Does Hong Chengchou really want to use the flesh and blood of the rebels to block us from crossing the Yellow River? ”

Lu Xiangsheng pondered for a moment, and suddenly exclaimed, "Not good! There are clouds in the art of war: the real is virtual, the virtual is real, could it be that Hong Chengchou used torches as a cover to attract our attention and secretly sent troops across the river? ”

Zhu Youzhen was also taken aback when he heard this, because just now he really focused on the torches on the opposite bank, as for the river channel within the embankment, it was already black, and under the contrast of the torches, it was even darker, and nothing could be seen twenty or thirty steps away. In order to ensure completeness, Zhu Youzhen urgently ordered Meng Gong: "Use all the firepower to conduct a fire reconnaissance at a hundred steps ahead of the river!" ”

Meng Gong received the order, and immediately shouted: "All artillerymen and bird guns, a hundred steps within the target river, fire!" ”

In an instant, the 1,500 gunners and all the gunners who rushed to the embankment opened fire at the same time, and all the muzzles and artillery fire erupted at the same time, and the scene was magnificent.

Almost at the same time, countless terrible screams suddenly sounded in the river!

"Sure enough, there are ghosts!" Zhu Youzhen lifted his spirits and said, "Fight, continue to fight hard for me, don't save ammunition, this battle must hurt Hong Chengchou!" ”

The infantry under Meng Gong's command also intended to show off their skills in front of Lu Xiangsheng's Tianxiong Army and the light cavalry of the 3,000 battalions.

"Launch the rocket!" Meng Gong ordered loudly again.

Soon, this special weapon, which had been used in the defense of the Beijing Division, came in handy again. Just listening to an extremely dense explosion of "bang bang bang", dozens of rockets have been shot from the big wooden barrel into the night sky, and then crossed countless parabolas and fell about a hundred steps ahead.

As the light of these rockets briefly illuminated the night sky, a hellish scene was unfolded: a large number of rebels lying on the ice of the Yellow River, those who were lucky enough to survive were also baptized by waves of salvo fire from the officers and soldiers, and fell almost in pieces. Before the embers were extinguished, Lu Xiangsheng judged that the rebels were at least divided into three lines based on this short glance, and each team suffered more than two or three hundred casualties. And they are already not far from the embankment, and if it were not for the use of fire reconnaissance, the consequences would be simply unimaginable.

After discovering that the enemy had been hit, the morale of the officers and soldiers immediately soared, and they fired three consecutive salvos in one go. Finally, the battlefield was calm again, but this calm was different from the other calm, on the ice of the Yellow River, there were already hundreds of dead corpses of rebels!