The news of the Qing army's siege quickly spread to the Governor's Mansion, and Ren Siqi hurriedly led the generals to the Xicheng Tower. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

When I looked down, I saw that the huge Qing army had been forced to be three miles away from the city wall.

As the saying goes, there are 10,000 people, and there is no boundary, let alone an army of 100,000! Looking up, the flags were like clouds, spears were like forests, people shouted and horses neighed, and boundless evil qi rushed to the face.

Looking at the huge array of the Qing army in the distance, many soldiers in the city had dry mouths and trembling legs, and the myth of the invincibility of the Eight Banners surged into their hearts again.

Especially those recruits, who have only been in the army for a few days, where have they seen such a large formation? One by one, they were nervous and could barely lift their hands.

"Fire!" Liu Zhaoji, the commander in charge of the command of Xicheng, asked Ren Siqi for instructions, and Ren Siqi waved his hand to let him command, so Liu Zhaoji gave the order for an artillery attack.

Hearing Liu Zhaoji's order, the artillery commander Chen Yujie waved the flag in his hand, and the ten red-clothed cannons on the Xicheng Fort opened fire in turn, with the white smoke flashing, the deafening bombardment sounded, and the city was immediately filled with white smoke. Like more than a dozen pebbles floating on the surface of the lake, a little, the lake surface will return to calm.

Although the red-coated cannon has a long range and great power, it is a solid cannonball after all, and it is not as explosive as the explosive flowering shell of later generations, and the damage caused to the huge array composed of more than 100,000 troops is extremely limited.

Since Shi Kefa supervised Jiangbei for a year, under the order of Shi Kefa, Chen Yujie, secretary of the military department, was responsible for casting hundreds of cannons, including more than 50 red-coated cannons, more than half of which were placed in Sizhou to arrange the Huai River defense line, but with the surrender of Li Yuchun, the general soldier of Sizhou, all the artillery in Sizhou fell into the hands of the Qing soldiers.

Chen Yujie, the secretary of the military department, was Xu Guangqi's apprentice, proficient in firearms production, and was appointed by Shi Kefa as the commander of the artillery team.

There are a total of 20 red-coated cannons in Yangzhou City, and more than 100 other artillery pieces of various types such as Franc machine and tiger squat cannon, if you add 200 500-pound wheeled artillery pieces of the Daishan Army, there are 3 or 400 artillery pieces in Yangzhou City, and the long-range firepower can be described as extremely powerful. With such a powerful firepower, Yangzhou was breached in a few days in history, which shows that weapons have never been the primary factor in determining the outcome of a war.

However, except for the redcoat cannon, which had a range of up to three miles, the other guns did not fire because of their lack of range.

In full view of everyone, the Qing army's array continued to approach the city wall until it was two miles away from the city wall. The distance of two miles is beyond the range of many artillery, and the city wall can only be reached by red-coated cannons and more than 20 thousand-pound furlong machine guns.

Clear the chamber, reload the gunpowder, light the fuse, and fire! The cannons at the head of the city bombarded continuously, each cannon causing slight fluctuations in the Qing army's array.

Ren Siqi held a clairvoyant mirror and looked at the Qing army column, and saw that the huge cannonballs ploughed out a bloody path in the Qing army's array, and the cannonballs smashed to the ground, smashing out a deep pit, and then bounced up again, tumbling and rolling forward.

Through the clairvoyant mirror, Ren Siqi could clearly see the frightened faces of the Qing soldiers, but the strict military discipline made everyone stand there quietly and dare not move, even the green battalion soldiers who had just joined.

What do they want to do? As soon as this thought arose in his mind, Ren Siqi saw hundreds of shield carts rolled out of the Qing army array.

It's really a shield cart, twice as big as an ordinary wheelbarrow, each one needs to be pushed by four Qing soldiers, and in front of the car is a larger wooden shield, which firmly protects several Qing soldiers in the back cart.

They're going to fill the moat! Ren Siqi quickly judged the intention of the Qing soldiers! A few days ago, the Qing army had successfully cut off the connection between the moat and the canal, turning the moat into a dead river without living water, and then digging a river channel to divert the water from the moat, and now the moat has become a deep dry ditch.

However, the ditch that is several zhang wide and more than one zhang deep is not easy to cross, and if you want to attack the city wall, you must fill this deep ditch, and now the Qing army is fighting this idea.

Liu Zhaoji, who was in charge of the command, also discovered the intentions of the Qing army and immediately ordered the artillery at the head of the city to fire at the Qing army's shield car. In addition to the ten red-coated cannons placed on the west city wall, there are more than 30 other artillery, 100 of the 200 artillery pieces of the Daishan Army are placed at the head of the city, and the other 100 are on the ship, and the 100 guns placed at the head of the city are also urgently transferred to the west city. With Chen Yujie's command, he fired at the moving shield car.

However, in these years, the hit rate of artillery was extremely low, and the target was a moving shield car, and after a round of artillery, more than ten shield cars were hit. However, as long as it is hit, it will be shattered and can no longer move.

Hiding behind the shield cart, the Green Battalion soldiers quickly pushed the cart forward and came to the moat, where a soldier pulled the rope on the giant shield, and the giant shield flipped over, piling the cart full of dirt into the moat, and then pulled the empty cart upside down and turned around and fled. According to the order of Duoduo, the prince of Yu, as long as a cart of soil is pushed into the moat, there is no need to participate in the siege of the city on this day.

The artillery at the head of the city fired continuously at the city below, and from time to time the shield carts were destroyed, and the green battalion soldiers behind the cars were hit by the artillery, but more shield carts came and went between the Qing army's positions and the moat, dumping cartloads of soil into the moat. The moat was filled with earth at a speed visible to the naked eye, and the Ming troops at the head of the city were all anxious.

Liu Zhaoji, who was in charge of the command, gave an order, and the musketeers and archers on the west city also began to shoot at the city. Since the Qing army mainly attacked Xicheng, and the other city walls were not attacked by Qing soldiers, Ren Siqi ordered the archers and musketeers to gather in Xicheng.

More than 4,000 archers and more than 3,000 musketeers, which are all the long-range troops in Yangzhou City, gathered at the west city wall at the same time to launch an attack on the Qing army that filled the moat under the city.

Arrows rained down, buckshot shot like a curtain, and the moat under the west city was covered with a rain curtain. Rounds of arrows rained down from the city, and with the rumbling of artillery, the casualties of the green battalion soldiers who filled the river increased sharply.

One by one, the shield cars were destroyed by artillery, and the green battalion soldiers behind the shield fled in a hurry, but fell in the barrage of arrows. The shield can block the bow and arrow shooting in the front, but it can't block the rain of arrows flying from the side, Yangzhou city wall is equipped with a horse face protruding from the city wall every dozens of zhang, and the green battalion soldiers filled in the city are often attacked from three sides.

For more than an hour, the moat had not been half filled, and more than 400 of the more than 500 shield carts sent had been damaged on the road, or they were hit by artillery, or the green battalion soldiers behind the shield carts were all shot, resulting in no one pushing the shield carts, and the speed of filling the river slowed down suddenly. (To be continued.) )