"The thief's artillery fire is fierce, you quickly go to Beiguan for help, and let General Wang transfer the thirty general cannons. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ”

On the tower of the West Gate of Luoyang, Wang Yinchang, the deputy envoy of the military garrison, ordered one of his personal guards.

Indeed, at this time, Luoyang Xiongguan was almost shrouded in enemy artillery fire, and the west of Luoyang was no exception.

Looking down from the city tower, the black siege thieves seem to spread to the end of the sky. At least from Wang Yinchang's side, the front of the entire west of Luoyang City, all the way to the corner of the north city wall, and the corner of the south city wall, are full of running and whistling soldiers and horses.

Above and below the city, the smoke of gunpowder was filled, cannons and arrows were flying, and in the huge noise, there were rockets fired at each other, and there were also artillery firing at each other.

The number of siege artillery pieces of thieves was beyond the expectations of the soldiers and civilians of Luoyang, and Wang Yinchang was even more unexpected, and there were hundreds of artillery pieces brought by the thieves.

Although there are not many general cannons with a range of five catties, there are only a dozen of them in total to attack Luoyang City, and there are only five of them facing the west gate, which is because Wang Dou captured thirty of the general's Buddha cannons a few days ago.

However, there are as many as 3 or 400 Franc cannons with an effective range of about 200 paces, and there are more than 100 guns facing the western section of Luoyang.

You must know that there are only more than 100 artillery pieces in the entire main city of Luoyang, and there are only more than 30 artillery pieces arranged in the west of the city, so the firepower of officers and soldiers and thieves is compared.

God knows that the thieves have become smart again, and before they set up their artillery, they first paid the price of many hungry soldiers, and built a lot of earthen platforms within the range of their own artillery, and there were mounds of earth in front of the earthen platforms as protective walls, and then left a gap in the middle to place the artillery, like a battlement.

In this way, the thieves' artillery has a cover, the earthen platform is a few feet above the ground, and the Luoyang city wall is high, their artillery can adjust the firing angle, and they don't have to worry about hitting the head of their own siege soldiers in front, and they cover the hungry soldiers filling the trench very smoothly.

What's more, the Wolf machine artillery is notoriously fast, and many cannons are fired in a short period of time, "They have more than 100 artillery pieces constantly bombarding. Each wave is more than a hundred solid iron balls of different sizes roaring, which can be described as thunderous as fast.

It is the city of Luoyang that is solid, and the city wall about four zhang high is all covered with big blue bricks. However, one was bombarded by these solid iron balls, and the masonry splashed indiscriminately, which also made people worry about whether this Luoyang city wall would be bombarded by them.

Under the fierce artillery fire, it was almost impossible to stand at the battlements, and many officers and soldiers in the west of the city were injured by the rubble caused by the dense artillery hitting the battlements of the city wall. Although the artillery in the city tried to fight back, the effect was not very good.

The gunners in the army are all gunners of the original Ming army who have surrendered to the enemy everywhere, and everyone's quality is similar, and the training is not necessarily more skilled than the other. It was that the gunners of Fucheng were better trained, but in the face of the gunfire of the thieves, it was quite difficult to counterattack.

Moreover, the gunners of the breaking army only need to aim at the city wall and bombard, the target is large and easy to fight.

On the contrary, the officers and soldiers of the city had to aim at the artillery bombardment on their earthen platform, that is, their artillery was placed at 200 paces.

Facts have also proved that "with the training of the gunners of Luoyang City, it is difficult to bombard Tutai." Although occasionally artillery hit the earthen platform and dumbed down the artillery over there. This proportion is still a little smaller, and it can't change the overall situation.

Wang Yinchang was in charge of defending the West Gate, and he and a cadre of officials and generals had long dared not live in the Que Tower, because it was an important target for the artillery bombardment of thieves. Wang Yinchang looked at the wall from the battlement, and saw the army of thieves coming, and couldn't help but be extremely anxious, "The Luoyang garrison next to him is also helpless."

The moat in the west of Luoyang City is very wide, and there are five zhang deep, "three zhang wide, but no matter how wide and deep, with the efforts of the dense and dense turns, many places are slowly filled.

The advantage of the thieves was that they did not spare manpower, and forced the hungry soldiers to carry the soil, or the gates, or the long logs, and forcibly erected wooden bridges over the moats, or filled in sections of trenches.

The hungry soldiers, who did not even have basic equipment, rushed forward with their bare hands on their backs, braving the artillery and rockets of the city, howling. insisted on filling the moat with human life.

Within dozens of steps under the city, there was already a mess full of corpses and wounded, and the blood solidified into reddish-brown in the cold wind, but the hungry soldiers still rushed forward desperately, making Wang Yinchang shake his head speechlessly.

Due to the cover of artillery, the defenders of the city did not counterattack very effectively, so that the results of filling the trenches of those intruders became more and more large. ,

The biggest threat was the thief artillery, Wang Yinchang was so anxious that he remembered Wang Dou's artillery. In the battle of Beiguan a few days ago, the artillery of the Shunxiang army had an outstanding record. They also had captured thirty guns of the Grand General Franco.

Therefore, Wang Yinchang ordered his personal guards to go to Beiguan for help, hoping that the arrival of the gunners of the Shunxiang Army could change the situation.

He looked from the top of the city, and the smoke and dust were billowing below, and the crowd was surging, and the shouts were shocking, and the eyes were all the thieves and soldiers wearing red turbans and various robes.

They came up in one wave, and then another. Looking into the distance, two hundred paces away, there are artillery platforms of the thieves, which are spread out along the west side of the city, where the smoke rises from time to time, and in the sound of cannons, another cannon pellet bombards the city wall.

Several of them are quite large, and the inner frame is full of the general Franc machine guns, and the cannons are even more five catties, which is extremely powerful.

Behind those earthen platforms, there are thieves armed with shields and broadswords, guarding artillery, and at the same time, they are also the main force waiting to enter the city. One after another, their densely packed flags spread all the way to the rear, and I don't know how many formations they lined up.

After the large formation of foot soldiers, about two miles away from the city, outside the south gate of the West Pass, the plains on both sides of the gate seemed to be the horse team of the thieves. From time to time, they can be seen whizzing by in groups of three or five around the periphery.

Wang Yinchang saw very clearly that the original tower of the south gate of Xiguan was now fluttering a tall big bill, which seemed to be the big tent of the Chinese army that broke into the army and was set up in Xiguan. commanding the attack of the soldiers and horses on the first gate of the West Gate, it is no wonder that the fourth gate of Luoyang is under the greatest pressure.

The intruders in the west section of the city are afraid that there are tens of thousands of people.

"Rogue!"

Wang Yinchang glanced at Xiguan hatefully, and while anxiously expecting the artillery of the Shunxiang Army to come with artillery, he walked back and forth on the city wall, loudly encouraging the officers and soldiers to defend the city.

Suddenly, the Luoyang garrison beside him shouted: "Bingxian be careful." ”

A tiger pounced "pounced on Wang Yinchang under him.

With a bang, a five-pound solid iron ball slammed into the wall behind him, knocking out a big gap in the brick wall, and rocks flew out. Several guards next to him covered their heads and faces and rolled to the ground, screaming loudly.

"Bing Xian is fine."

The Luoyang garrison got up, "Helped Wang Yinchang and asked loudly."

"This official is fine, it's okay.........

Wang Yinchang got up, it was really dangerous.

Yang Shoubei helped Wang Yinchang up, and drank the strong Ding Township who ordered the head of the city to help the guards go down to Chengyun for treatment. Each army had its own doctors, and all the doctors in Luoyang City were also requisitioned, among which the doctors assisted by the Shunxiang Army were the most popular, after all, they were well-trained professional military doctors.

Wang Yinchang gasped for breath, still stunned to see that the Luoyang garrison was busy, and his mind couldn't help but turn a thought: "Yang Shoubei has been in Luoyang City for many years, and he has been conscientious, so he has saved his life, and it is time to promote him to a higher level." ”

Suddenly, one of the soldiers guarding the city shouted, "Look, what is that?" ”

Wang Yinchang hurriedly looked at it, only to see that behind the Tutai of the Chuang Army, dozens of movable wooden bridges appeared, each with a length of two or three zhang and a width of more than one zhang, and there were wheels under it that could be pushed. Dozens of wooden bridges pushed forward, and the defenders of the city were stunned.

Wang Yinchang's face was ugly, and he gritted his teeth and spit out a sentence: "Feiqiao didn't think that the thief would attack me with Feiqiao." ”

This flying bridge, also known as the trench bridge, is specially used for siege and moats, and is the earliest boat bridge unit used by the army in ancient times. Compared with the soil method, it is extremely fast to fill in the moat, after all, the moat of many cities is wide and deep, and if you want to fill in the pass, you need to pay a lot of effort, and the defenders of the city are not vegetarians.

With a moat bridge, it's much more convenient, just one.

The defenders of the city were stunned when they couldn't imagine that the thieves would make a flying bridge.

In fact, it is not difficult to understand that the army captured all the cities in Henan except Luoyang City, and there were many craftsmen and craftsmen, and there were many hungry people in the army, so it was not so difficult to make dozens of trench bridges.

The crowd of black pressure came, and each trench bridge was pushed by dozens of hungry soldiers, and the perimeter of the trench bridge was also guarded by intruding soldiers with shields.

Wang Yinchang saw that there were two small wheels at the front end of those flying bridges, and it was obvious that when the flying bridges were erected, they were used for fixing and making the bridge more stable. There are also pins, rollers and other devices on each bridge, if the number of bridges is combined, the bridge body will be as wide as several zhang, ten zhang, more conducive to the passage of the people who attack the city.

There are also talents among the thieves, and this flying bridge is made in strict accordance with the records of the "General Essentials of the Martial Arts". For the first time, Wang Yinchang felt that today's thieves are no longer what they used to be. Thinking that Henan Mansion was almost completely trapped, Wang Yinchang suddenly became worried about the future of the Ming Dynasty. ,

But what needs to worry about at the moment is himself, what makes Wang Yinchang frightened is that behind the moat bridge, there are countless thieves carrying cloud ladders, the ladder is long and thick, and each ladder requires dozens of thieves to move. Just count them, I'm afraid there are hundreds.

Behind these ladders, there were countless thieves and foot soldiers, holding knives and cards, just waiting for the ladders to reach the city, and then ascended the city to attack.

Wang Yinchang's face was pale, and Yang Shoubei trembled: "Bingxian, what should I do?" ”

Wang Yinchang suddenly screamed: "Fire the cannon and kill them." ”

At this moment, the drumbeat of the intruding army sounded like thunder, and it seemed that ten thousand people were shouting, and they pushed their equipment and rushed desperately shouting. Looking down from the sky, countless red scarves rushed to the city wall, like dark clouds covering the sun.

On the tower of the south gate of Xiguan, there is a big banner with the word "Chuang". Under the banner, Li Zicheng, Liu Zongmin, Li Guo, Liu Fangliang, Yuan Zongdi and other generals broke into the camp, as well as Song Xiance, Niu Jinxing, Li Yan and other literati stood behind him.

Looking at the majesty of the thousands of troops and horses under the city, Li Zicheng couldn't help but feel a sense of pride in his heart, which could hardly be suppressed.

Niu Jinxing said: "Congratulations to King Chuang, this battle will definitely be able to go down with one drum." ”

Li Zicheng laughed, Luoyang City is his own.

The artillery on the west side of the city continued to fire, and a cannonball hit a trench bridge, causing the soldiers and soldiers on the side of the bridge to rush to the wolf. Another shell hit a pile of people carrying a ladder, and the intruders were scattered with flesh and blood, and suffered heavy casualties.

The artillery of the intruding army under the city was also fired violently to cover the besieging troops.

Their artillery fire was so fierce that the officers and men at the battlements did not dare to raise their heads at all.

Seeing that the dozens of moving wooden bridges were still approaching the city, Wang Yinchang sighed: "Stop the artillery and prepare for melee combat." ”

He also instructed his guards: "Ask Wu Qianzong of the Shunxiang Army to send them reinforcements and let them hurry up to the city to fight." ”

Soon, Wu Zhengchun in the city led his own Shunxiang army to the west section of the Luoyang city wall to participate in the guard of the west gate.

Wu Zhengchun and Shen Shiqi were sent into Luoyang City by Wang Dou together, which was to support the various battles, of course, they were only used at critical times, and they usually lived in the city to rest. Unexpectedly, as soon as the army attacked the city, Ximen began to ask for help.

Seeing Wu Zhengchun leading an army of nearly a thousand ironclad armies to the city in a steady stream, Wang Yinchang breathed a sigh of relief.

Hand-to-hand combat, he knows the situation of his officers and soldiers, in this west gate, there are the original garrison officers and soldiers of Luoyang City, as well as some township warriors and social soldiers. It's okay for them to attack from a distance, but if the thieves go to the city to fight hand-to-hand combat, I'm afraid that they will be more auspicious and less lucky, and they can only count on the Shunxiang army.

When Wu Zhengchun came over to give a salute, he hurriedly stopped him cordially and said: "Thieves are rampant, Luoyang is in danger, and the safety of the army and the people is all up to President Wu Qian." ”

Wu Zhengchun's dark and thin face was full of determination: "General Dingguo has an order, and he wants the last general to fully assist in defending the city." Bingxian can rest assured that the last general has received the general's order, and he will definitely do his best to live and die with the city of Luoyang. ”

With a wave of his hand, his sergeants immediately entered a state of combat readiness, with the bird-blunt soldiers defending the battlements or horse-faced enemy towers, and the pikemen behind the bird-mirrored soldiers.

At this time, the artillery of the Chuang army was still bombarding, and the solid iron balls hit the brick city wall, and Wu Zhengchun did not dare to approach the battlement, but just looked out from the lookout hole of the battlement.

The black and oppressive moat and the flow of people outside were already approaching the moat, Wu Zhengchun glanced back at his soldiers, and saw that although they were nervous, they were not chaotic at all, the Shunxiang army was well-trained, and the new army was the same.

However, Emperor Wu Sidi knew that after his subordinates were successfully trained, they had only participated in the battle of suppressing bandits before, and there was no vicious battle in the battle of Ruzhou. At present, the thieves are attacking the city on a large scale, which is a test for their subordinates, and if they survive this hurdle, they will become qualified veterans.

The intruders stopped after the last round of artillery bombardment, because the trench bridges had already begun to build bridges over the moat, and if they bombarded again, they would injure their own sergeants by mistake.

One moat after another outside the city was erected, but there was no movement on the city wall, and the officers and soldiers guarding the city were nervously waiting for Wang Yinchang's order.

Finally, dozens of trench bridges were erected, and in the rapid drumbeat of the intruding army, countless intruders rushed from the trench bridge against the ladder.

Here, they encountered obstacles, because on the inner side of the moat, there was a "sheep and horse wall" about one zhang high, and the sheep and horse wall was thirty steps from the city wall, and they needed to climb over the sheep and horse wall before they wanted to build the city wall.

However, the army had detected the Luoyang city defense, and had already prepared, and many hungry soldiers held small ladders with door panels and leaned against the sheep and horse wall, and after they crossed the sheep and horse wall, they took the cloud ladder over. Looking down from the top of the city, the black pressure below is full of thieves who are climbing over the sheep and horse wall.