The Nine-Headed Bird Army Headquarters at Fort Sandridge.

Early in the morning, a large number of Tartars in Shenyang City suddenly left the city, and the troops rushed to the east and north of Shenyang by road, and the news of a large-scale siege of Puhe City and other castles based by the Black Flag Army has been quickly transmitted back. According to the reports of the scouts from all walks of life, the Tartars in Shenyang City moved very much this time.

At least 20,000 horses were dispatched, divided into seven routes, and raided the temporary garrison of the Black Flag Army.

When the news came back, there was no surprise in the Nine-headed Bird Army Headquarters in Sand Ridge Fort.

The chief of staff of the Liaodong Army just told Liu Jun the news very plainly, "The Tartars in Shenyang City finally couldn't bear to move." ”

Liu Jun also didn't fluctuate when he heard this, "Immediately order the standard battalions of the Four Associations of the Black Flag Army, let them shrink temporarily, don't go out to sweep anymore, immediately retreat into the nearest castle to organize defense, and tell them to stick to the city and don't go out of the city to fight first." ”

Cai Yuan, deputy commander-in-chief of the First Division, is now temporarily acting as the chief officer of Lushun Town, he poured the freshly boiled hot water into the teacup, and made the tea slowly and neatly, "The Tartars have dispatched 20,000, and there are at least 30,000 in the city, and this force is okay to defend the city." I think we can send troops and destroy the arrogant Tartars. ”

"There's no need for that, they beat theirs, we beat ours. Since he can go and fight the castle occupied by the Black Flag Army, then we can fight Shenyang. It's cold, and the three castles are almost repaired, just right, the weather is good today, pull the troops to Shenyang City, and let's also practice. ”

Liu Jun is not very worried about the Black Flag Army that was attacked outside, and the Tartars who came out of Shenyang City are not some elite in armor, if it is really 20,000 elites, Liu Jun still has to worry, but now it is at most a reserve army of Tartars, and they are also divided into several roads, full of confidence, and want to sweep the Black Flag Army. So what does Liu Jun do with that heart?

Liu Jun is not in a hurry to attack Shenyang now, now this situation, the weather is cold, delaying the best time to attack Shenyang, now attacking Shenyang, even if it can break through the city wall, but the large number of Tartar population in Shenyang City will still cause great casualties to the Chu army. However, Liu Jun didn't mind pulling the troops to Shenyang City to put some pressure on the Tartars.

Dai Shan and Dolgon have already led a large army to come back to help, which can be regarded as the purpose of besieging Wei and saving Zhao in the first place. But now the weather. The Chu army did not dare to retreat without the support of the water division.

Once there is no city fortifications to rely on, it will be quite unwise to fight the Qing army in the field in the ice and snow. Therefore, now Liu Jun has adjusted his goals, and in this winter, all departments will focus on defense. As long as they occupy the city fortress, even if they are alone and go deep into the enemy territory, the Chu army does not have to worry.

As long as it waits until the ice melts in the spring next year, the sailor will be able to go up the river. At that time, whether the Chu army was advancing or retreating, there was no problem. After Liaohe and Huang Taiji had a hard confrontation head-on, Liu Jun found that such a hard-fought field battle method was still not suitable for the Chu army, and the casualties were too great to be worth it.

However, Liu Jun did not plan to storm Shenyang. It does not mean that he intends to hide in the castle until next spring. If this is the case, he will not still scatter the Black Flag Army outside, and now the Qing army in Shenyang City can't help but want to destroy the Black Flag Army, Liu Jun feels that this is a good start.

I don't fight Shenyang. But I welcome the Tartars to storm our castles, and siege warfare is a battlefield meat grinder that is more terrible than trench warfare, in this war of attrition. The defenders have a natural advantage.

No one knows better than Liu Jun that this kind of turtle stream tactics are actually terrifying. Because what the Chu army is best at is positional warfare and city defense warfare.

Although Fu Zonglong and Fan Zhiwan proposed to Liu Jun several times to fight a few battles with the Qing army, Liu Jun found reasons to reject them every time.

In the current situation, Liu Jun has actually thought further. He has worked hard to run until now, is it just to sacrifice himself to save the Ming Dynasty? Liu Jun felt that the Ming Dynasty was no longer saved, because the Ming Dynasty was rotten from top to bottom, and even if he fought with the Qing army here, the Ming Dynasty would decay and perish by itself.

And Liu Jun is not a loyal minister of the Ming Dynasty, he has never thought of being a loyal minister of the Ming Dynasty. In the past, whether it was training troops to suppress bandits, sending troops to aid Liao, or sending money to the emperor, it was all just to be able to climb to a higher position and master stronger strength.

The defeat of Songjin in the imperial court made Liu Jun more aware of the weakness of the Ming Dynasty.

At this time, Liu Jun didn't want to die with the Manchu Qing Dynasty and make wedding clothes for others. He came to Liaodong, firstly, because the time had not yet come, and he could not refuse the emperor's order, and secondly, he did not want to see the Qing army go all the way to the pass again. On the premise of not damaging his own strength, Liu Jun is very willing to weaken the strength of this Han enemy in advance.

Nicholas Liu Jinzhong is now temporarily acting as the commander of the defense of Puhe City, commanding a company of the Black Flag Army and the Nine Headed Birds, with 500 men under his command, as well as many prisoners in the city, as well as the Liaodong Han people who moved from the vicinity of the Black Flag Army.

Facing the thousands of Qing troops outside the city, Nicholas had no fear, but his blood was boiling, and he finally became the commander again. He danced excitedly, and gave orders again and again, asking the artillery staff to command the soldiers to carry the cannons to the city, and asked the quartermaster Dong Xian to be responsible for organizing the young and strong men of the Han people in Liaodong in the city, responsible for transporting wood and stones to the city, and let them set up a cauldron at the head of the city, and began to boil water and hot vegetable oil.

Dong Xian made arrangements while taking the time to make a suggestion to Nicholas.

"The Black Flag Army used to use arquebuses, and many of them were not proficient, so they were not as well-trained as our guns. I think we could have the Black Flag Army as our gunslinger's assistants, our soldiers would be responsible for releasing the guns, and the soldiers of the Black Flag Army would be responsible for loading ammunition. ”

Nicholas thought for a moment, "This will do. ”

The Tartars outside the city seemed to be well aware of the forces in the city, and when they reached the city, they did not surround it on all sides. Since Puhe City only had two gates in the north and south, it was more conducive to the attack of the Tartars.

They put a few hundred cavalry to guard the north gate, and then the rest of the soldiers and horses concentrated on the south gate. There is nothing new about the siege of the Tartars, it is still a traditional siege mode, which is mainly based on capturing the city gates.

Puhe City is only a small city, with two city gates, and there is no urn city, but there is a moat. However, it is winter, and although it is said that the river will freeze, in winter, the moat will not be filled with water, and the moat will be dry.

The Tartars wanted to seize the South Gate. This moat, which is one zhang deep and two zhang wide, must be crossed first, and behind the moat outside the south gate, there is also a wall of sheep and horses that is high to strengthen the defense of the city gate to protect the drawbridge.

This is also the traditional castle of Puhe City, if it is a newly built fortress like Lushun and Zhenjiang, Nicholas can even use two companies in the city to make the thousands of Tartars outside the city unable to touch the city wall.

The Tartars were also prepared, and at the head of the city, Nicholas saw the Tartars launch dozens of shield carts.

In front of these shields is a large wooden plank, as if pushing a door panel. This shield cart is crude and rudimentary, but it is a sharp weapon against bows and arrows, especially with fire and lead bullets. The people hid behind the shield carts, and no matter how powerful the firearms on the city were, they couldn't penetrate them.

Under the impetus of Ahha, the shield cart formed a shield cart wall and slowly came towards the south gate.

Behind these shield carts are some trench wagons that are specially used to cross the trenches, and there are some improvised ladders at the back.

Nicholas watched as the Tartar cowered behind the shield cart. Slowly pushing the shield cart to move over, just sneering. Relying on this traditional and backward siege tactics, even if you take a city with artillery and firearms? What a dream!

Some of the Tartars' light horsemen were walking two hundred paces from the city, which was already within range of the city's mountain grenades. Nicholas ignored them, though.

They only have four guns, and the shells are also limited, and they cannot be used at will. Moreover, the cavalry is scattered relatively widely, and even the bombardment effect will not be very good. It is still most suitable to deal with the Tartar infantry under the city.

The shield cart creaked and rolled on the hard snow, leaving trails of the car. Under the cover of these shield carts, there were quite a few Tartars behind. Some of them were armoured and some were not, but they were armed with bows and arrows, whether they were armoured or not. Obviously, he wanted to get close to the city and enter the range of the bow and arrow, and then prepare to cover the besieging troops with the bow and arrow.

Nicholas brought a receiver to transport the booty this time, except for the company commander, the inspector and the people from the company headquarters did not come, the rest of the people came, and there was no chief of staff at the company level of the Chu army, but there were two staff officers, one of whom was the artillery staff officer, who was responsible for the artillery equipped in the company.

Because the Chu army has a complete and advanced military industry, as well as relatively abundant military spending, so the mountain grenade, a fairly advanced artillery, in the Chu army's equipment sequence, is only a company-level light support firepower, this kind of three-headed donkey can pull a cannon and a shell in the mountains of light artillery, in fact, the casting cost is very low, that is, the price of ten flintlock guns, so Liu Jun is very happy to equip to the team level, each team has a three-catty mountain grenade, each company has three three-catty mountain grenades, and a six-catty mountain grenade.

In Liu Jun's words, mountain grenades are not guns at all, at most they are equivalent to machine guns.

A three-pound mountain grenade is actually a four-pound mountain grenade, with a caliber of 84mm, a cannon length of more than half a meter, and a weight of only 55 pounds. The range of his solid projectile is not far, just 300 meters, and the shrapnel can fire 200 meters, and if it is fired, it will only have a range of 100 meters.

But for the Chu army, which has many cannons, such a light mountain grenade is enough to use as a team-level support firepower. The six-kilogram mountain grenade is only 110 kilograms, and the solid bullet can hit 500 meters away.

The artillery of the Nine-headed Bird never regarded these mountain grenades as cannons, but compared to the artillery fire of the Qing army, this was actually stronger than their Franco.

Lighter than the Furlong machine, but hit farther.

As soon as the Tartar's shield cart came within five hundred paces of fire, the artillery staff couldn't help but let the six-pound grenade take the lead in firing a solid iron ball at them.

With a bang, the six-pound iron ball flew out, and the distance of three hundred steps flew easily, and it slammed into the back of the shield car array.

Although more than 300 steps were separated, Nicholas Liu Jinzhong still heard a scream and an exclamation from there. He grabbed the clairvoyant mirror and saw an unlucky Ahha, one leg was directly gone, blood was splattered, and he fell to the ground screaming. The iron ball hit him, but it bounced off the hard frozen ground, arced, and smashed into the archers behind him.

This time it hit one directly, and then rolled and broke the leg bones of several bows and arrows.

On the snow, lines of shocking red were left behind.

One of the coats behind the Tartar shield turned around and ran away, but before he had run many steps, he rode over at a gallop, and the cavalry ran past him, and the sword flashed, and the fleeing coat had fallen on the snow.

The Tartar shouted a few words, and the shield cart moved forward again.

The six-pound mountain grenade was also fired again.

What made the Tartars panic was that the artillery of the Ming army at the head of the city was extremely accurate, and from a distance of more than two hundred steps, it once again accurately bombarded the Tartar group behind the shield cart, this time directly killing and injuring seven or eight Tartars, leaving many stumps and broken arms and blood all over the ground.

The artillery staff officer proudly asked Nicholas Liu Jinzhong for credit, "Our artillery is professional!" ”

Nicholas smiled and scolded the artillery staff officer from Sweden, "Fuck, your gunner's salary has always been the highest, why don't you say it." ”

The Hydra has the world's most advanced artillery system, has the most advanced artillery, and is also the unit with the most artillery, and similarly, the gunners of the Hydra are also the first in the world to become an independent class and enjoy a high status.

The gunners of the Hydra are an independent unit, and each gunner is selected and then rigorously trained. All the gunners were at least first-class privates, most of them were first-class soldiers, and many were non-commissioned officers, and some were even high-ranking non-commissioned officers. Just like the Swedish artillery staff officer in Nicholas Company, he is a third-class sergeant major, relying on this unique skill of playing with artillery.

The artillerymen had an additional class allowance, which was even higher than that of the cavalry and sailors, and was the highest of all the classes. The gunners of those heavy artillery regiments are even more perverted, a 32-pound long cannon crew has more than 30 people, a good heavy gunner, and even one person is proficient in the technology of seven or eight positions in the artillery crew, they can cooperate with each other to continue firing when there are only two people left in the artillery crew. Those guys have higher allowances, all of them are sergeant majors of the second class or even sergeant major of the first class, and their salaries are even higher than that of the company commanders.

"Don't show off, give me more punctuality, be more ruthless!" Nicholas can only secretly envy these guys who are called the treasures of the army by the commanders. As the head of the company, his salary is not as good as that of an artillery staff officer of a company.

After entering the two hundred paces, the artillery staff immediately commanded the remaining three three-pound mountain grenades on the head of the city to join the firing. Although the three-catty cannon has only three catties of solid bullets and is half lighter, as long as it is hit, it is actually no different from a six-catty bullet. When a shell hits, no matter how many layers of armor you are wearing, it will hurt you when you rub it, you will die if you touch it, you will break your arm and leg at the lightest, and you will die on the spot.

A three-pound iron ball directly hit the front of a shield car, and the thick wooden board couldn't withstand its impact, so it exploded directly, and the tartar next to it was immediately affected, and half of its head was directly cut off by a wooden board.

It took a great deal of effort for the Tartar cavalry in the rear to order those Aha to continue their advance.

The artillery staff looked at the Tartar, which was getting closer and closer to the moat, and smiled brightly.

"If the shield cart is used against ordinary shotguns, it does have some effect. But don't they know that we Hydra have a kind of cannonball called a shrapnel that can explode in the air? ”

The shield cart is directly ahead, and it is indeed effective against ordinary scattered bullets and firearms, but the Chu army's grenade shotgun is killed in the overhead air explosion range, and the shield cart has no effect.

"Then change the shrapnel and let the Tartars have a good look!" Nicholas Liu Jinzhong also smiled very happily, and even had a feeling of bullying! (To be continued.) )

PS: Thank you for the support of the mysterious passers-by and ghost husbands, thank you!