The next day, the red-coated cannons from Sizhou finally arrived. Pen ~ fun ~ Pavilion www.biquge.info Duoduo ordered to set up an artillery array on an earthen hill three miles outside the west city of Yangzhou. Thirty red-clothed cannons were placed on the earthen hill, and the muzzles of the black hole pointed directly at Yangzhou City.

The distance of three miles is the best firing range of the red-coated cannon, and under the operation of the gunners of the Han Army of the Zhenghuang Banner, the artillery began the first round of test firing after commissioning. During the decades of warfare with the Ming Dynasty, the Manchus captured hundreds of cannons and trained many skilled gunners.

Under the command of Ying Yuan, the true ancestor of the Zhenghuang Banner Han Army, the gunners lit the fuse of the artillery.

"Boom boom" continued to make loud noises, and the entire mound was filled with gunsmoke, and huge cannonballs flew towards Yangzhou City.

Since it was the first test firing, the accuracy was not very good, and some of the shells did not reach the city wall at all, and landed in the wilderness in front of the moat, while others crossed the city wall and smashed into the city far away. Only a few shells just hit the city, and the smashed stacks were sparse and bricks were scattered.

The gunner, who was specifically responsible for operating the gun, carefully observed the trajectory of his artillery projectile, and then began to adjust the angle of the gun.

There was a loud "click", which jumped Ren Siqi, who was dealing with official documents in the governor's mansion.

"Uncle, it's the artillery that came in from outside the city and landed on the roof of the wing!" A guard hurried in and reported the reason for the movement.

Has the artillery of the Qing army finally arrived? Ren Siqi slowly put down the pen in his hand, since the artillery has arrived, then the Qing army is about to attack the city.

"Uncle, should we hide!" As soon as there was movement outside, Xiong Er dodged in front of Ren Siqi, and after hearing the guard's report, he asked.

"Hide from you," Ren Siqi scolded angrily, "Didn't you see that the Qing army was testing artillery, they wanted to use artillery to collapse the city wall so that they could attack Yangzhou!" ”

Xiong Er touched his head and smiled embarrassedly.

"Let's go, let's go to Xicheng and have a look!" Ren Siqi thought about it, stood up, and walked outside. Xiong Er followed behind without saying a word.

"Uncle, it's too dangerous in the city, don't go!" Li Yan walked out directly when he heard the sound and dissuaded.

"It's okay, my life is on my own. By the way, now that the Qing army outside the city is firing cannons inside, the people in the city must be panicking, so you have to bring people to pacify them as soon as possible. Ren Siqi commanded.

"Don't worry, uncle, you can't mess up. We recruited hundreds of scholars a few days ago, and have trained them and sent them to various streets, with them, and with the help of the county commissioners and the chief of Lizhengjia, the entire Yangzhou City is under control! Li Yanzhi said confidently.

"That's good." Ren Siqi nodded, with the shogunate officials led by Li Yanzhi, he didn't need to worry about the government affairs in the city.

took Xiong Er, Li Xingjiu and other guards to the west city wall, and Ren Siqi saw that the artillery at the head of the city was engaged in a fierce artillery battle with the Qing army outside the city under the command of Chen Yujie.

"Uncle!" Seeing Ren Siqi going to the city, Zhengsha Qianli, the Daishan military camp in charge of guarding the city, hurriedly ran over with a few guards holding a huge shield, and protected Ren Siqi tightly behind the shield.

Cannonballs flew in the air, and from time to time shells fell on the head of the city, smashing the entire city wall violently. If the cannonball falls on the city wall, it will smash a big hole on the ground on the city wall, and the cannonball of the red-coated cannon, one is more than ten catties, if it is just hit, it will definitely die. However, the artillery is fired from outside the city, the goal is naturally to collapse the city wall, not to destroy the Ming army at the head of the city, in fact, it is not easy to destroy, the artillery bombardment from the bottom up is either bombarded on the city wall or over the city head and falls into the city, and there are very few that can just fall on the city head.

Pushing away the guards in front of him, Ren Siqi threw down the nearest battlement, held a clairvoyant mirror and looked down the city, and saw dozens of huge cannons lined up on an earthen hill three miles away. Thousands of Qing soldiers guarded around the mound, and through the clairvoyant mirror, you could see the Qing gunners on the mounk busy operating.

"Uncle!" Hearing that Ren Siqi had gone up to the city wall, Liu Zhaoji, the lord of the West City, hurriedly looked for him.

"Mr. Liu, what is the situation at the head of the city?" Ren Siqi carefully observed the movements of the Qing army outside the city and did not look back.

"Uncle Hui, the situation is not good." Liu Zhaoji's tone was very anxious, "The Qing army's red-coated cannons are very sharp, and there are more of them than ours. According to the soldiers' observations, one of the middle of the city wall has been smashed out of a huge pit by cannonballs, and there is a possibility of collapse at any time. ”

Looking from Liu Zhaoji's hand, the focus of the Qing army's bombardment was on the section to the north, which was about to be bombarded.

Listening to the rumbling cannon roar and feeling the violent vibration of the city wall under his feet being smashed by cannonballs, Ren Siqi closed his eyes and pondered.

Liu Zhaoji stood anxiously in front of Ren Siqi, looking at the young supreme commander of Yangzhou in front of him, waiting for his instructions.

"Send an order to send the bricks and stones up to the city at once, and build walls on both sides of the wall that is about to collapse, and separate that section from each other."

"What?" Liu Zhaoji looked at Ren Siqi in surprise, he didn't understand why he gave such an order, could it not be possible to let the Qing army's artillery collapse that section of the city wall?

"Give an order to Li Yanzhi, the chief of the General Staff Department, ordering him to immediately send people to organize the people to build barricades near the city wall that is about to be destroyed, and be sure to block every street leading to the city."

"Order, transfer a hundred guns from the ship into the city, and place them behind the barricades. The Daishan army of the other cities was ordered to be transferred to Xicheng and defended according to the barricades. Half of the defenders of the other cities were transferred, and new recruits were transferred to defend the city. ”

One after another orders came out of Ren Siqi's mouth, and the heralds behind him quickly received the orders and ran everywhere.

"Uncle, you, do you want to ......" Liu Zhaoji finally understood Ren Siqi's intentions, and was so shocked that he couldn't speak.

"Yes, I'm going to lay a trap for the Qing army and drain their blood here!" Ren Siqi nodded and said fiercely.

"However, if the Qing army is allowed to enter the city, what if Yangzhou is lost?" Liu Zhaoji said worriedly.

"Don't worry, with you and me, with 27,000 veterans and more than 60,000 recruits, and 800,000 fathers and elders in Yangzhou, the Qing army will definitely not be lost!" Ren Siqi said confidently.

He knew that he was taking a risk, but he had to take this risk, the Qing army added up to more than 200,000, and the troops in Yangzhou City could not attack out of the city at all, if the Qing army was not allowed to enter the city, how could they kill and injure them in large quantities?

The total number of Manchurian people is only hundreds of thousands, and all the Eight Banners soldiers add up to more than 100,000 people. (To be continued.) )