As the Qing army of the first wave of attack quickly spread to both sides, the sight of the soldiers of Huguang Town behind the breastwork gradually broadened. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 info.\\When the smoke cleared, I looked up, and saw a large number of corpses in red hats and broken green flags lying on the north bank of the clear Cotton Creek, and there were many tattered shield carts lying in the middle of the Cotton Creek, and a large number of floating corpses were slowly drifting downstream in the direction of the current. The surface of the river is covered with a large area of terrible red, and the once poetic and picturesque sense has disappeared and become extremely bloody.

Looking at the bloody scene in front of them, the hearts of the soldiers who broke the barracks were excited, it was the Qing soldiers who died, of course, the more the better. Some of the recruits who were originally extremely nervous also relaxed a lot, since the Qing army had not yet touched the edge of their own defense line and suffered such heavy casualties, what was there to worry about?

Seeing that the Qing army was hurriedly moving upstream and downstream, Lu Qiwu and Shi Lang naturally would not let go of this opportunity to beat the water dogs, and ordered the artillery and rocket fighters to bombard again, once again sending many scrambling Qing soldiers to the western sky.

"My lord, the Tartar Hongyi cannon has been dispatched!" When the Qing army on the front had not completely dispersed to both sides, under the banner of the Seven Star Battalion of the broken barracks, a sharp-eyed herald beside Shi Lang suddenly showed nervousness, pointed to the signal flag waving on the hill on the west side and said to Shi Lang anxiously.

Shi Lang hurriedly looked towards the hill in the direction pointed by the herald, and sure enough, the lookout post on the mountain sent a signal with a command flag: After the green battalion soldiers in front of him, there were already ten Hongyi cannons dispatched, all of which were heavy artillery with more than nine pounder guns.

Almost at the same time, Lu Qiwu also received a warning signal from the lookout post. Immediately afterwards, the lookout post on the Chinese army's lookout car also discovered that the Qing army's Hongyi artillery was dispatched, and the early warning information and the order of the Chinese army headquarters to evacuate the formation and avoid artillery fire were transmitted together.

Receiving this warning and the order of the Chinese army, Shi Lang and Lu Qiwu were all pale, in many military meetings before the start of the war, they had already known the power of the Qing army's Hongyi artillery, and now that they knew that this killing weapon was really dispatched, they did not dare to slack off, and when the artillerymen and rocketeers completed another round of salvo, they hurriedly asked the flag bearers and drummers around them to issue an order to evacuate the formation.

Rumbling drums. More than 6,000 officers and men of the Gangfeng Battalion and the Broken Army Battalion quickly dispersed, while the artillery and a small number of firecrackers, sword and shield soldiers behind the breastwork remained in place and took refuge nearby, so as to prevent the Green Battalion from taking advantage of the situation to launch a sneak attack.

Pang Yue had long expected that the Qing army would launch an attack by the Hongyi artillery. Therefore, some preparations were made when constructing the fortifications, and many sacks and earthen baskets full of soil were placed in the open space between the various defense lines to prevent the continuous jumping and rolling of the Qing army's Hongyi artillery shells. to counteract its lethality. Half-man-deep trenches were dug on the east and west sides for the sergeants to take refuge.

Some important camp tents, such as medical tents and tents for storing ammunition and grain and grass, were specially set up in the south of the camp, and the side vans around the camp were also filled with earthen bags or baskets. Most of the gunpowder in the ammunition tent was even moved to a cellar dug in the tent.

Soon, the first wave of attacking Green Battalions completely dispersed and moved to the upper and lower levels. The wilderness in front of the breastwork was unobstructed. The soldiers of the Gangfeng and broken barracks behind him could already directly see the Qing army's large array more than two miles away, and they also vaguely saw a large number of Qing soldiers in red armor pushing a row of swarthy big guys towards this side.

Hongyi Cannon! The soldiers of Huguang Town on the first line of defense almost exclaimed in their hearts, and the emotions that had just relaxed became tense again.

"Inspector, Jiannu's Hongyi cannon has been dispatched, and it is no longer safe here, so let's go down and hide first!" On the high platform of the Chinese army headquarters, Pang Yue persuaded Zhu Dadian with a solemn expression that once the Qing army's shells came, it would not be a joke.

Zhu Dadian nodded: "Let the soldiers behind the first line of defense not relax their guard." In case the Qing Qing Green Battalion took advantage of the artillery bombardment to launch a sneak attack. ”

"Rest assured, Inspector. This matter will be arranged a long time ago! Pang Yue replied that he had formulated a series of defensive measures against this sudden situation long before the war, but he was not too worried, and the green battalion soldiers would not attack again until after the artillery bombardment. As for the precision infantry artillery coordination tactics that advance with the advance of their own artillery, it is difficult for modern armies and even modern armies to do, and pigtailed soldiers based on "mounted shooting" can also do so. It can only be said that I have seen a ghost or my character is too bad.

"Alas!" When he stepped off the high platform, Zhu Dadian sighed heavily. With a fork in his face, "The Hongyi cannon was originally my Ming Dynasty's militaristic weapon. Now it has become the support of the eastern captives to conquer the city, which is really regrettable and hateful! ”

……

The artillerymen in red armor who came out of the Qing army's large array were the sergeants in Kong Youde's camp. Although Kong Youde himself is subordinate to the Han Army's Zhenghongqi in terms of household registration, and the more than 5,000 troops under his command are also organized according to the Eight Banners, wearing the armor of the Zhenghongqi, but they do not belong to the jurisdiction of the Han Army's Red Banner, and have no affiliation with the Han Army's Zhenghongqi Gushan Zhenjin, but directly obey Kong Youde's command and have their own system. The same was true of the armies of Shang Kexi, King of Zhishun, Geng Zhongming, King of Huaishun, and Sheng Zhixiang, Duke of Xushun.

Right now, Kong Youde was riding on his horse in high spirits, looking at the Ming army camp opposite with a mixture of contempt, pity and many other complex feelings. He had already seen clearly just now that there seemed to be only some Fran cannons in the Ming army camp, and it might be useful to scare and scare those green battalion soldiers who were not equipped with a large number of artillery, but if they were put in front of him to show off, it would only be equivalent to getting an axe in the class. This time, the artillery battalion under his command dispatched a total of two 24-pounder guns, two 18-pounder guns, four 12-pounder guns, and four 9-pounder guns.

Kong Youde's artillery pushed one heavy cannon after another and moved forward with great difficulty, gradually moving to a position nearly two miles away from the first line of defense in Huguang Town, and stopped. In this position, even the nine-pounder cannon could hit the Ming army behind the breastwork, and as for the twenty-four-pounder cannon and other heavy artillery, it could directly hit the Ming army camp.

Soon, the artillery officer of Kong Youde's department began to shout and issue one command after another.

"Adjust the muzzle!"

"Gunpowder!"

……

When the artillery of the Qing army was about to be reloaded, the lookout posts on the hill on the west side and the watchpost on the Chinese army's lookout car used the flag to send the last warning message to the officers and men of the battalion before the shelling.

At the sound of the officers' orders one after another, the soldiers of the Gangfeng battalion and the broken battalion on the first line of defense bowed down together, or lay behind the earthen bags and baskets or crouched behind the breastwall to hide, and some soldiers got into the shallow trenches of the anti-artillery dug at the edges of the east and west.

Pang Yue and Zhu Dadian, as well as Zhang Yunli and several staff officers from the General Staff Department, also hid behind the high platform in the camp. Originally, Pang Yue sent people to dig a cellar in the Chinese military tent, wanting Zhu Dadian to go there to hide. Unexpectedly, Zhu Dadian seemed to have suffered a great humiliation, blowing his beard and glaring at Pang Yue, whether he regarded himself as some kind of burrowing animal. Pang Yue didn't beat the old man after all, so he had to give up, and at the same time let several personal soldiers be ready to act as meat shields at any time.

……

"Boom!" "Boom!" …… With a loud noise and white smoke rising from the north, the ground trembled violently.

The Qing artillery finally opened fire! The fiery balls hit the first line of defense, splashing debris flying all over the sky. Occasionally, a few clouds of blood mist and terrible screams could be heard.

The Qing army's ten Hongyi cannons were about every three or four cannons for a wave, and they came continuously, and every third wave would be temporarily suspended, but in less than a quarter of an hour, it was several consecutive waves, and the continuity of firepower was quite strong.

Listening to the continuous sound of cannons, Pang Yue not only sighed in his heart, although this Kong Youde is hateful, but in the end it is still a bit of a way, but at the same time, he is deeply unwilling: if he also has a Hongyi cannon of equal power in his army, why can't he fight back just by being beaten like this?

Although the lethality of some shells was offset by the numerous earthen bags and baskets on the position of Huguang Town and the shallow anti-artillery trenches, in the face of those heavy red-coated artillery, no matter how tight the defensive measures were, it was a negative measure after all, and it was impossible to completely prevent the occurrence of casualties. Once the shells hit by more than 10 catties or even 20 catties of shells directly hit by them, no matter whether they hide behind dirt bags or in shallow trenches, there is only one result, that is, they are crushed on the spot.

However, due to the angle of fire and distance, most of the Qing army's cannons could not directly hit the breastwork wall less than one person high, let alone the previous low wall, so these two fortifications did not suffer much damage.

During the continuous artillery bombardment, soldiers from the Gangfeng Battalion and the broken barracks were hit from time to time, and a rain of blood floated on the position. Several shells even fell directly into the shallow trenches, killing several soldiers on the spot. For a while, the screams behind the entire first line of defense were almost one after another, and the soldiers who were not hit were also pale, especially those recruits who were on the field for the first time, and some of the timid ones even lay on the ground and kept shaking. It was only under the severe rebuke of the supervisors and the officers at higher levels and the strict military discipline that there was no major chaos.

The main purpose of the Qing army's artillery bombardment seems to be only to kill and injure the Ming army guarding the first line of defense, destroy its will, and cover the green battalion to cross the river.

After discovering the purpose of the Qing army, Lu Qiwu and Shi Lang ordered their soldiers to move a little from the east and west to the middle to reduce casualties.

When Kong Youde's Hongyi artillery was bombarding non-stop, Zhang Yingxiang, Wang Guangen and other green battalions were also crossing the river in full swing, the river was not wide, and there was no firearms of the Ming army to stop them, so their speed was much faster.

After more than ten waves of bombardment, the Qing army's Hongyi artillery finally quieted down. The experienced officers of the Flame Battalion who were hiding behind the breastwork had already guessed that after such a long period of firing, most of the barrels of the Qing artillery had been seriously heated, and if they did not stop dissipating heat, they would be in danger of exploding.

At this moment, the lookout post on the hill on the west side sent another warning message: most of the Green Battalion soldiers had crossed the Cotton Creek, and after assembling, they were coming along the foot of the mountain on both sides towards the first line of defense... )