On the 27th day of the first lunar month, Mao 18 arrived in the north of Nanjing with the naval fleet. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 infoIn just over 100 miles of waterway, he walked for a full ten days. The section of the waterway from Nanjing to Zhenjiang is too narrow, and most of the Chongming sailors are sea boats traveling in the sea, and they are going upstream, the river is turbulent, and many times it is impossible to drive by the wind, and it is necessary to rely on the slender man to pull the big boat on the shore.

Ren Siqi was waiting for the sailors, not for them to attack the city, but for the artillery on the ships. The city of Nanjing is thick with high walls, and the siege of the city by manpower ladders will be very damaging, and the Chongming army is now only 40,000 or 50,000 people, and it can't withstand too much damage at all. Fortunately, there are many cannons on the ship, and there are hundreds of red-coated cannons of thousands of catties alone, and the cannons can be unloaded from the ship and erected on the Zhongshan Shogunate Mountain, which can bombard the inner city of Nanjing.

At the riverside wharf outside Guanyin Gate, a huge gantry hanger is mounted on the wharf, and a huge pulley is installed on the beam above the gantry crane, which is a unique lifting device in Chongming, specially used for loading and unloading goods, and is now used to unload the red-coated cannons on sailboats.

Fifty or sixty soldiers, pulling thick brown ropes, lifted heavy cannons from the deck, unloaded them onto the riverbank, and loaded them on wooden gun carriages, and a dozen soldiers pushed them towards the Guanyin Gate.

On Zhongshan and Shogunate Mountain, more than a dozen platforms were leveled in ten days, and here will be a fort for the installation of red-coated cannons, and at the foot of the mountain a walled arrow tower was built, and a heavy army was sent to guard it.

In three days, more than 50 artillery pieces were installed on the battery, all of which were red-coated cannons of more than 3,000 catties.

On February 1 of the second year of Hongguang, the Chongming army began to officially attack the city of Nanjing.

More than 50 red-coated cannons opened fire at the same time, launching a fierce artillery bombardment towards the city wall of Nanjing. The sound of the fierce artillery bombardment shook the sky and resounded for hundreds of miles, and millions of people were frightened and turned pale in both the inner city and the outer city.

The 5,000-pound red-coated cannon shells were more than 20 catties, and they fell on the head of the city after several miles of space. The green battalion soldiers at the head of the city either hugged their heads and scurried, or lay on the ground trembling and unable to speak. The soldiers who were unfortunately hit by the shells were all broken bones and tendons, and they were not human-shaped.

"Shoot back, bastard, fight back!" The leader of the Green Battalion at the head of the city kicked the ass of the Green Battalion soldiers lying on the wall and told them to fight back. But the city was empty, and there was no Ming army attacking the city at all, so could it be possible to use bows and arrows to shoot at the Ming artillery positions a few miles away?

There are artillery pieces at the head of the city, but most of them are small cannons such as tiger squat cannons and Francos. Because the artillery used for the siege of the city was taken away by Luckedhun of the western expedition. Ordinary artillery can deal with the enemy besieging the city, but it is simply impossible to fire at the red-coated artillery several miles away.

So the green battalion soldiers in the city sadly found that they had fallen into a situation where they could only be beaten and could not fight back. It turned out that the Ming army had not attacked the city for more than ten days, and what was waiting for it was artillery!

The artillery has been bombarding, the city wall on the northeast side of the inner city has been bombarded with thousands of holes, from Zhongshan to Xuanwu Lake within a few miles of the city wall stacks have almost been swept away, the green battalion soldiers at the head of the city have suffered heavy casualties and cannot stand at all.

However, the city of Nanjing is worthy of being a heroic city through the ages, the city wall is filled with rammed earth and covered with bricks and stones, although dozens of cannons continue to bombard, but the city wall still stands.

"I'm afraid it won't take a few days to collapse the city wall!" Looking through the clairvoyant mirror and looking at the city wall in the distance, Ren Siqi frowned.

"If you want to collapse the city wall, it will take at least half a month." Li Yanzhi stood beside Ren Siqi and replied.

"Half a month, that's too long." Ren Siqi said. If Nanjing cannot be taken for another half a month, I am afraid that Qing reinforcements from all over the country will continue to come.

Although a three-way army has been sent to block the east, west, and south, there are only three or five thousand people on each road, can they block the reinforcements of the Qing army from all over the country? You must know that there are tens of thousands of Qing soldiers in Hangzhou, and there are more than 20,000 green battalions in Suzhou. In the west, there is the main force of the Eight Banners of Luckedhun.

"There is a subordinate who doesn't know whether to say it or not." Li Yan thought for a while and said to Ren Siqi.

"What's wrong with me?" Ren Siqi glanced at Li Yanzhi in surprise, since the internal guard investigated him a few years ago, Li Yanzhi's words and deeds have been too cautious, and he faintly has a sense of alienation from himself, which makes Ren Siqi a little sad. Not only Li Yanzhi, but even Mao Shibai is now respectful to himself, and he is no longer the casual appearance he used to be. Is this the inevitable consequence of rising status?

"The subordinates believed that if they wanted to take Nanjing, they had to forcibly attack the city. But if we want to storm the city, we must have sufficient troops, and our troops in the city are less than 40,000 people, and we can't afford the losses of a forced siege. Moreover, the elite soldiers we have trained with great difficulty cannot be lost in a war of attrition such as siege. ”

Ren Siqi nodded and agreed with Li Yanzhi's words, because he had always thought so.

"But don't forget, Governor, in this Nanjing City, in addition to our Daishan Army, there are also Township soldiers who are no less than ours!" Li Yan's straight voice changed, and his tone became low.

"You mean?" Ren Siqi was stunned for a moment, and looked at Li Yanzhi suspiciously.

"Yes, the governor, it is to drive the village soldiers to attack the city!" Li Yanzhi said firmly.

"But, they're all untrained people!" Ren Siqi hesitated.

"We don't need them to take the city, and they can't take the city, they have only one role, which is to consume, as much as possible to consume the green battalion soldiers defending the city. Drain their energy and morale, and make them tired. It is also cost-effective to exchange the lives of ten township soldiers for one green battalion soldier. ”

"Moreover, you have made so many battalion generals, is it really so easy to get such a high position, how many soldiers and soldiers of our Chongming Army have fought and fought many bloody battles, and they can't climb to the position of battalion leader, why should they? If you want to have a place in our Chongming Army, you have to show real merits! ”

"Why didn't you tell me this earlier?" Ren Siqi glanced at Li Yanzhi deeply.

Li Yanzhi lowered his head and was silent.

"Okay, according to what Brother Hiko said, we will start attacking the city with all our strength from tomorrow. However, there were only more than 30,000 rural soldiers in the city, and the number was still too small. The order was sent down, and the anti-Qing righteous soldiers in various places near Nanjing were appeased, and they were ordered to rush to Nanjing to join our teachers, and give them higher official positions and better conditions, as long as they were willing to obey my orders, as long as they were willing to come to Nanjing to participate in the siege, everything was easy to say. In addition, by posting notices in the city and continuing to recruit village soldiers, the conditions can be better, and the silver of the settlement family can be higher. It's up to you to do all this, Brother Hiko. ”

"Yes, Dudu!" Li Yanzhi shouted the order, turned around and went out. After waiting for a long time, he finally got Ren Siqi's trust again, which made Li Yanzhi very happy.