"What's going on?" Zuo Jigao was startled by this loud noise just now, annoyed in his heart, and immediately asked loudly.

None of Zuo Jigao's side answered, and some of them had already understood what was happening, but it was just not good to say it in front of the Governor.

Zuo Jigao noticed that the artillery bombardment of the Urumqi city wall by the cadres seemed to have stopped, and he was furious, and immediately strode off the lookout, turned over his horse, and went straight to the direction where the artillery position was located.

Just as Zuo Jigao rushed out of the camp, the cannon of the artillery position rang out again, Zuo Jigao heard the sound and reined in his horse, hesitated, and continued to beat his horse and gallop towards the artillery position.

Because the 140mm French Schneider cannon, which he relied on the most, had not yet fired.

Based on his own experience during the rebellion of the Changmao bandits, Zuo Jigao was convinced that the two decisive factors for victory were the bravery of the soldiers and adequate provisions. He had only experimented with Western manoeuvres in his army later in the rebellion, but he felt that shouting orders could not be used in the formation of soldiers. Although Zuo Jigao equipped his army with Western firearms, for some reason, he thought that as long as he practiced target shooting for ten days, twice a day, he could send his troops to fight. In the offensive launched in Shaanxi, Gansu and even Xinjiang, the war he fought was precisely such a situation: although the terrain was relatively difficult, the main attack was still on the fence and the city - which was no different from the battle against the Changmao bandits. Fortunately, Zuo Jigao cherished Western-style siege artillery, and several veteran officers in his unit had learned how to use them.

In the Battle of Jinjibao, Liu Jintang, the general of Zuo Jigao, used a Krupp 107 mm siege gun transported from Shanghai. The gun was commanded by a Prussian officer. The shells were not able to blast through the thick walls of the fort (which was 35 feet thick). Liu Jintang then built a tall artillery position. Condescendingly bombarded Jinji Fort, and the cannonballs flew over the city wall and directly entered the city, and the soldiers and civilians of Jinji Fort suffered heavy casualties, and finally were forced to surrender.

Thanks to this cannon, Liu Jintang was able to sweep away a large number of fortresses of Hui bandits, so Zuo Jigao wanted to get a larger caliber and more powerful artillery, and the French officer in his army recommended to him the 140 mm cannon produced by the French Schneider Arsenal, and claimed that the Fuzhou Shipbuilding Bureau had purchased a number of such cannons. It is used to equip newly built warships, which can be transferred to the imperial court.

Zuo Jigao has always been jealous of the Fuzhou Shipbuilding Bureau, which he founded and was later controlled by Shen Youdan, Lin Yizhe's uncle and nephew, and is now controlled by Ding Yusheng, the enemy Li Shaoquan's sworn friend, but for the sake of the great cause of the Western Expedition, he still decided to write to the imperial court to request the allocation of artillery, he thought that Li Shaoquan and Ding Yusheng would definitely make it difficult for him, so he also prepared a response, but he didn't expect that Ding Yusheng, the Minister of Shipping, agreed to the transfer very happily, and gave him a 140mm cannon with enough shells.

Although Zuo Jigao got a sharp weapon in vain. But he didn't appreciate it in his heart - in fact, it was not the first time that this kind of thing had happened, like the main generals of the Western Expeditionary Army. Many of them come from Li Shaoquan's Huai lineage, and the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, which Li Shaoquan founded, has also been supplying firearms and ammunition to the Western Expeditionary Army.

After the arrival of the 140 mm Schneider cannon, Zuo Jigao originally wanted to pick on it, but this cannon was too good under the command of the French officer, and the Western Expeditionary Army swept away many fortresses built by the Agu Bai rebels all the way, attacked the fortified Daban City of Agu Bai, and under the fierce bombardment of the 140 mm siege artillery, it took only 4 days to break through the city. In the attack on Manas City, which was not as fortified as Daban Castle and was defended by Bai Yanhu, it took two months for the Kim Soon army, which was poorly equipped and had no siege artillery.

The Schneider cannon, which Zuo Jigao called "can go miles away, go down from the sky, and fight the best of the infantry horse team", has since become his magic weapon to defeat the enemy. During the attack on Urumqi this time, this cannon became the main force.

At this time, Urumqi was held by the two major rebel leaders Agubai and Bai Yanhu, as long as Urumqi was broken and the rebel leaders were captured, the task of "breaking the enemy within a time limit" of the imperial court would be completed, and his great cause of the western expedition could basically be said to be "completed".

But now Urumqi can be said to be a hard nut to chew, although Zuo Jigao can play with it between the palm stocks, but if he wants to smash open its shell and eat the meat inside, he has to work hard.

In order to compete with the cadre army, Agubai's army was also equipped with a large number of Western-style guns, Agubai purchased new weapons through British merchants very early, and used Turkish instructors to train his army with European methods, and also established a factory capable of producing firing muskets. There are also flowering cannons in addition to foreign guns and foreign artillery." This time, defending the fortified city, Agubai and Bai Yanhu can be said to have mobilized all their elites, intending to confront the cadres to the end. Soon after Zuo Jigao personally commanded the siege of the city, and soon the artillery of the cadre army began to bombard, the Agubai army used foreign artillery to return fire at the head of the city, but because of the short range, it could not attack the artillery of the cadre army, but it could pose a great threat to the cavalry and infantry of the Qianjun army besieging the city.

Zuo Jigao's tactics were nothing else, that is, to first destroy the city wall of Urumqi with 140 mm siege artillery, and then launch an attack by infantry cavalry to destroy the enemy.

In order to obtain overwhelming offensive firepower, Zuo Jigao ordered the old artillery equipped by the troops to be used together, most of these artillery are old-style mountain splitting guns, and they do not play a big role in the battle, but Zuo Jigao has a soft spot for these low-priced weapons, because these mountain splitting guns have a short range, far from being compared with the 140 mm French cannon, Zuo Ji Gao concentrated them all in a hidden position, after the 140 mm cannon fired, with the help of its cover, These mountain-splitting guns, numbering more than 100, were fired at close range to achieve the greatest results.

Zuo Jigao thought that his command had mastered the essence of the art of war, but he would not have thought that it was his arrangement that led to his great cause of the westward expedition, which was destined not to "end perfectly".

Zuo Jigao galloped forward and came to a stop on a hillside. He raised his binoculars and looked ahead. Not far away is the artillery position of the dry army. In the telescope, one after another mountain splitting cannons were firing. The 140-mm siege artillery positions in the distance also rumbled and resounded.

Everything seems to be back to normal.

Zuo Jigao saw black smoke spewing from the muzzle of the mountain splitting cannon, and then a large pockmarked spot (shotgun) appeared on the city wall in the distance, and it seemed that he could still hear the screams of the enemy soldiers in the middle artillery, and a satisfied smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.

The reason why he is so fond of mountain splitting cannons even when he has Western cannons is because of these mountain splitting cannons that are now firing. One of them was designed by him.

It was the fourth year of Xianfeng, in order to suppress the long-haired bandits, Hunan set up a ship artillery bureau, presided over by Zuo Jigao, he designed a kind of mountain splitting cannon according to the style of the old artillery, this kind of cannon is made of cast iron, the cannon body is five feet long, the shape is like a large cannon, "can be loaded with half a catty and half a catty group" (that is, half a catty shell and half a catty shotgun). With a firing range of about four or five miles, this gun can be used both on land and water. It is especially dexterous to install on the sampan, which can be tilted or tilted, and can be used in front and back, which was a sharp weapon at that time. After these mountain-splitting cannons designed by Zuo Jigao were transported to the Hunan army for trial, they were appreciated and affirmed by Zeng Bohan, the commander of the Hunan army, "The mountain-splitting cannons made by Your Excellency are sharp weapons on land and water." ”

For this kind of cannon designed by himself, Zuo Jigao has always been quite proud, and it was with this westward expedition to Xinjiang that he brought the mountain splitting cannon again, and he did not bring less.

Liu Jintang, who was proficient in artillery operations, raised objections to the fact that the troops were equipped with so many old-style mountain-splitting cannons, saying that they should be equipped with more "Western-flowering cannons" and that "they should be more effective." Zuo Jigao's explanation for this was that "Chinese and Western weapons have their own short and long and long of each other," and he did this because Chinese and Western weapons "complement each other's long and short weapons."

Zuo Jigao has always believed that Western weapons are defective in the use of war, and that they should be "made up for their shortcomings" with weapons from the Middle Earth, and he said to Liu Jintang, Zhang Yao, and other generals on more than one occasion: "Foreign wars specialize in firearms, and the heavier ones range from tens of catties to thousands of catties and tens of thousands of catties, and those below 10 catties are called guns." The cannon is heavy and can reach far, and it cannot be carried by boats, cars, camels, and mules, and cannot be cast without a frame; The gun is the fastest, the most fast, the horse is suitable for walking, but the weight is light and small, and it cannot reach far inside and outside. It is advisable to use the people of Middle-earth to carry the mountain cannon and set up a short mountain cannon for the sake of profit. If you encounter the enemy, the cannon can not be used, the gun can not be the enemy, to split the mountain, full of the group, or really to blossom and close the round tip, supplemented by foreign guns, protected by knives and spears, will be successful. Cover its long and can make up for its short. At Zuo Jigao's insistence, although they were slandered about this, Liu Jintang, Zhang Yao and others still accepted the reality of the existence of a large number of old-style mountain-splitting cannons in their army.

In this attack on Urumqi, Zuo Jigao concentrated more than 100 mountain-splitting guns to fight with the French Schneider cannons, and another purpose was to prove to the generals the correctness of his theory of "complementing each other's long and short weapons" with Chinese and Western weapons.

Zuo Jigao stood on his horse, holding a telescope to carefully observe the battle situation, at this time, the salvo of Chinese and Western artillery was also very shocking from a distance, a large group of black smoke rose from the city wall of Urumqi, hundreds of shells roared and smashed heavily on the wall of Urumqi City, the mountains shook in an instant, although the rebels tried their best to use artillery to fight back, but there was no effect at all.

The artillery battle lasted for half an hour, and the entire city of Urumqi was completely shrouded in flames and gunsmoke. The mountain splitting cannon lacked sighting equipment and lacked accuracy, but the density and frequency more or less made up for this shortcoming. After half an hour of bombardment, the seemingly impregnable city of Urumqi was bombarded in pieces, shells bombarded the tower, cutting off large pieces of rubble, or falling into the city (such is generally foreign artillery), smashing down the houses where the rebel soldiers were hiding, and the city of Urumqi was already bathed in a sea of fire in the eyes of Zuo Jigao, and the screams were endless.

Looking at all this, Zuo Jigao was very happy in his heart.

"Handsome! It's too close to the battlefield, it's too dangerous, in case the rebels come with artillery......" Jin Shun, who came later, was worried about Zuo Jigao's safety, and dismounted and came to Zuo Jigao's horse to persuade him.

"It's okay." Zuo Jigao wanted to see the scene of the army breaking through the city, and waved his hand with a smile, "The rebel artillery is few and small, and it can't hit here." ”

Just as Zuo Jigao's words fell, a heavy thunderous noise came, followed by the earth-shattering cheers of the cadres.

Zuo Jigao and Jin Shun followed the prestige in unison, and immediately saw that the city gate of Urumqi could not withstand the fierce bombardment of the artillery fire of the cadres, and collapsed with a loud bang.

The passage to the inner city opened.

At the beginning of the battle of Daban Castle. The cadres also blasted open the city gates in the same way. Fight your way into the city. Just rush in now. A glorious victory, will be within reach.

All the officers and men of the cadre army set their eyes on the city gate.

Seeing that there was a great merit in front of him, all the cadres and troops could not hold it back, and the "Dong Zi Third Battalion" under Dong Fuxiang's department was the closest to the city gate, so he left the position first and rushed straight to the city gate.

Dong Fuxiang's headquarters was originally a militia group, and military discipline has always been very poor, and they were originally used as an escort for artillery positions. At this time, seeing that the great achievement of entering the city was ahead, they all rushed forward without an order. Seeing the actions of the "Dong Zi Third Battalion", Liu Chaopei and Dai Zongqian, who also belonged to the escort army, were a little surprised, they didn't expect Dong Fuxiang to leave the position without authorization to grab merit, but the two of them couldn't stop it, so they had to restrain the troops and prepare to follow in and fight a street fight.

And at this moment, the most dramatic scene of the entire Western Expedition appeared.

At the moment when Dong Fuxiang's troops rushed into the city of Urumqi, a mountain-splitting cannon on the artillery position of the cadre army suddenly exploded.

The bore of this cannon. It is difficult to say whether it has anything to do with Dong Fuxiang's unauthorized departure from the battle position. Maybe it's just that the sustained firing time is too long and it doesn't take time to cool down. But its sudden explosion led to catastrophic consequences.

Because behind this mountain-splitting cannon was a mountain of gunpowder and shells.

As a rule, the powder magazine should be kept at a distance from the artillery. However, in order to carry out Zuo Jigao's battle plan, the gunners of these cadres made it convenient for them to open their own artillery, and set the gun positions of the powder magazine and the mountain splitting cannon too close. A little spark can cause an explosion, not to mention the power of a mountain cannon to blow up.

The powder magazine of the artillery of the dry army was ignited in an instant, and an extremely violent explosion occurred.

Zuo Jigao, who was standing in the distance, first saw a dazzling fire burst out in the artillery position, and a huge black cloud rose into the sky, and then a deafening roar reached his ears. The scorching flames and shock waves spread indiscriminately in all directions, and the stumps and severed arms of nearby soldiers were tossed high into the air and then fell to the hot ground. There is almost no blood because all the liquid has been dried by the heat.

The smoke of gunpowder covered the sky, and the sky of the entire battlefield suddenly darkened, and everyone, whether it was the Agubo rebels or the cadres, their movements stopped at this moment.

No one can react immediately to what is happening.

But everyone saw that this violent explosion occurred in the artillery position of the cadre army.

Both the soldiers charging in front and the generals in the rear were panicking. They didn't know the cause of the explosion, and could only subconsciously think that their army had encountered a terrible attack, and hundreds of robes were engulfed in an instant. The desire to survive drove them to leave this place of right and wrong as soon as possible, and they turned around and fled.

The cadres and the army were in great chaos.

If Liu Jintang's army or Zhang Yao's army encountered this kind of thing, Liu Jintang and Zhang Yao would restrain the troops, at least they could keep the chaos and not collapse.

But Kim Soonjun couldn't do it.

Because Liu Jintang's army is based on the Hunan army under his father Liu Songshan, and Zhang Yao's army is based on the Huai army, they cooperate tacitly on weekdays, and they will know the soldiers and the soldiers. But Jin Shun's army is different, its composition is very complicated, Jin Shun's troops directly under Jin Shun are the troops of the former Urumqi Admiral Chenglu, among the armies under his jurisdiction, Dong Fuxiang's department comes from the troops of the original Hui bandit rebel allies who surrendered to the Hunan army of the original Liu Songshan department, Liu Chaopei and Dai Zongqian belong to the Huai army troops, and Fang Chunfa's troops belong to Jinglian's department, these troops lack trust in each other, and there is no tacit understanding, so Zuo Jigao personally commanded them. Now that such a big explosion has suddenly occurred, the consequences of this army's lack of backbone have finally been exposed. All the ministries are doing their own thing, and they all feel that a great disaster is coming, and they can only take care of themselves.

After all, Aguba is a battle-hardened veteran. After a brief moment of surprise, he immediately realized that it was a great opportunity to fight back. The rebels who were cowering in the castle came out one after another, and launched a counterattack when the morale of the cadres was shaken.

Aguba's son, Huli Burke, took the lead and launched a counterattack. Immediately afterwards, Bai Yanhu also led the army to rush over.

The first to collapse was Dong Fuxiang's department, which had already entered the city. They could not accept the transition from victory to defeat for a while, and were routed by the rebels and fled backwards through the city gates.

Liu Chaopei and Dai Zongqian behaved quite calmly, they did not let their troops collapse after the explosion, and they were still faithfully carrying out the combat mission. When Dong Fuxiang's troops retreated, they heroically met them and tried to protect their allies. Their move allowed Dong Fuxiang to escape, but left Liu and Dai's troops with a total of four battalions under siege by the rebels.

The three cavalry divisions of Fang Chunfa, Chen Baishun and Zhang Jun, who were in charge of containment outside the city, were very disturbed by the sound of the explosion just now, and then saw Dong Fuxiang's cadres retreating in panic, Liu Chaopei and Dai Zongqian were surrounded under the city.

Thousands of horses galloped with an astonishing momentum. In the eyes of other cadres, it was as if the whole line had collapsed. The entire cadre army's position was completely chaotic at once.

"Handsome! Come on! Seeing this, Jin Shun didn't care about restraining his soldiers and horses, but said anxiously to Zuo Jigao. (To be continued......)

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