There are two rivers in the north of Changsha City, Liuyang River in the south, Laodao River in the north, the two rivers are four or five miles apart, and they flow into the Xiangjiang River to the west.

At present, the wasteland between these two rivers is filled with layers of ditches and walls, stretching for more than ten miles, and then turning north along the trend of the Laodao River, protecting the Iron Furnace Temple twenty miles to the north, and the entire defense line is twenty or thirty miles long. 【1】

There was a great river nearly 200 paces wide, deep ditches, roads and walls, and so many people. The more than 100,000 Qing soldiers who filled this defense line felt very safe, and they did not have the courage to fight against the thief army, but the courage to defend the trench was still enough.

What's more, the emperor is in the Iron Furnace Temple......

Looking back into the distance, in the far north, the flags are colorful, it is only the Nersu camp, but after that camp, there should be the emperor's Luan. The invisible Ming Huang sè is like a strong wall, firmly standing in the hearts of more than 100,000 Qing soldiers. This wall is so tall and so strong, like the Great Wall of the Northland, as if they were born only to know that this world is the Qing Dynasty.

On the afternoon of July 17, the city wall was crossed, and heaven and earth were confused.

Hundreds of mén cannons were deployed in front of this defensive line, two rounds per minute, and within two hours nearly 30,000 shells of 12 or 20 catties bombarded the defensive line, the ramparts collapsed, and the watchtowers soared. The thunderous roar alone lasted for an hour, and countless Qing soldiers lost their souls.

Bahun Dai was in charge of the western section of the defense line, and the big tent was ten miles away to the north of the Laodao River, when he saw the artillery fire boiling in the south, and the smoke of gunpowder rising, it was like pulling up a wall of smoke that rushed to the sky, and the monoculars in his hand were almost startled into his eyes. Seeing that the family members around him were straightening their eyes, and their stomachs were shaking, they thought that the situation of the officers and soldiers on the front line should be even more unbearable. He cheered himself up, sent his family to inspect the defense line of the Liuyang River, and asked them to behead the deserters when they saw them.

When these family members came to the defense line of the Liuyang River, they did not see a few deserters, but they saw that the trenches were full of people. They had to lie down in the trenches, and all the protrusions on the ground were the targets of artillery fire, the walls, tents, fences, watchtowers, and human bodies, and no one thought that they would be lucky in this Shura field where guns rained down, not guns.

The trench is used to block the thief army, and tens of thousands of people are all filled in the trench nearly a foot deep, how can this battle be fought? The thieves rushed over, and the people in the ditch had to raise their hands and surrender. Bahun Dai's family bīpressed the commanders of the battalions, and the commanders of the battalions pressed thousands of people in the battalion, killing dozens of people, before they could barely push people up the wall on the north bank of the Liuyang River, which had been bombarded with holes, and the red-clothed soldiers were already erecting pontoon bridges at this time.

Two or three hundred paces apart, the muskets and small cannons were firing vigorously, and in the noisy noise, the Qing soldiers also found a trace of their heart.

But this spirit quickly dissipated, because "Hades Xiao" came. The clearly visible black dot crossed the surface of the river, pulling a full arc and falling into the air, which was a huā bullet, because this huā bullet also carried a terrible scream, so it was given this name by the Qing soldiers.

Although the sound of the firing was not as fierce as the previous artillery, it was more terrifying than those cannons in the ears of the Qing soldiers. was hit by artillery cannons, most of them were braided on the spot, and it is estimated that they didn't have time to feel pain. But he was blown up by this huā bomb, and he couldn't die for a long time, either he was hurt to death alive, or he died of blood.

The fireworks exploded one by one behind the wall, occasionally bursting early with huā bombs, bursting orange flames in mid-air, a little detonating on the surface of the river, splashing columns of water, and the Qing soldiers felt that their defense line was like a sand wall piled up on the beach, being trampled by a giant beast spewing blood and fire.

"Lie down on the low point"

Experienced Qing officers beckoned to their subordinates, leaning on the walls and shallow trenches, which could not only avoid artillery fire, but also release guns, although they still had to get up and load, but it was better than always being a target for guns.

Even so, the endless cannonballs and bursting fireworks covered the surroundings, and no matter how thick the nerves were, the brain felt stiff, like a ball of ice slag, which would break into a ball with the slightest movement.

"It's a heavenly soldier, it's really a heavenly soldier, otherwise how can it keep thundering? Heavenly Soldiers-ah-ah-"

Finally, some soldiers couldn't hold on, covered their ears, looked at each other, jumped and jumped, and shouted loudly.

The officer wanted to catch up and slash him, but there was a whining Yama roar in the air, and he felt different from before, so he was so frightened that he quickly stopped.

More than ten steps away, a huge strange cannon almost smashed the mad soldier to the ground, grunted twice, and then there was green smoke in front of his head, and there was no movement. Looking at this cannon, which is flat and long, and the tail also has small wings like feathered arrows, the Qing soldiers are very familiar with it, but it is enough to have the thickness of an ordinary person's large tuǐ, and the small half-person high open huā bullet, it is really the first time to see it, and it is rare. , smoking......

There were dozens of people around who could clearly see the huā bomb, densely packed in a pile behind the wall, their brains were already confused, and they only reacted after watching for a while, but they had seen the huā bomb that exploded too late.

The breathing of these dozens of people instantly stopped, and they felt a bitter feeling overflowing from the xiōng cavity, surging rapidly through the throat, enveloping the entire mouth, and at the same time, the muscles of the whole body were also out of control, and the sound of ticking water sounded in more than one place. Except for the madman who was still jumping, in the eyes of everyone, he seemed to be dancing the ghost woman dance to welcome the bull head and horse face.

The light burst forth, instantly swallowing the line of sight. The space swelled rapidly, and this perception surpassed the experience that all their imagination had never touched, the loud sound of the sky and the earth cracking, even the burning of the bones, were blocked by a layer of diaphragm, and their consciousness was squeezed out of their bodies by an irresistible force, and was squirting out of their gaping mouths.

At 4 p.m. on 17 July, the first 30-pound shell was fired from the Shenxiao howitzer that had just arrived at the front line, opening the prelude to the complete collapse of the Qing army's defense line on the Liuyang River. When the British and Chinese troops occupied the defense line of the Liuyang River and inspected the results of the artillery bombardment, they found that 46 Qing soldiers had died from this large huā bullet, and half of them were shocked to death. There was also a person who was only two or three steps away from the center of the explosion, and the human body whose bones were burned together was still dancing with his hands, which made people quite puzzled.

Li Xi waited in Changsha for so long, mainly waiting for the main force of the Qing army to gather, so that he could catch them all, and at the same time, he also waited for the Foshan Manufacturing Bureau to complete the new flying cannon, no, now he changed his name to the howitzer to complete the improvement. This is not a big killer, but with the cannon, it can more effectively suppress the opponent's trench defense system.

The new Shenxiao howitzer belonged to the independent artillery battalion, and the shè thirty catties were fired huā shells, and the shè journey was as far as two miles, and finally changed from an infantry weapon to an artillery weapon. But before the Foshan Manufacturing Bureau hitchhiled out of the hydraulic brake and other things were not installed, mainly because it was too expensive, a set of that thing can top four or five mén guns, and reliable xìng is not enough to withstand more than 100 times of operation, this technology can only wait for materials and processes have progressed, and then ponder.

There were not many new howitzers in place, only four mén, but relying on these four mén guns, the Qing army's Liuyang River defense line soon collapsed. The banner soldiers who served as the overseers fled back to the north bank of the Laodao River in a hurry, and on the defense line of the Liuyang River, the more than 20,000 green battalions that were stuffed in front of them as human sandbags were all annihilated. In fact, the casualties of this group of defenders were not serious, only two or three thousand, but where did they withstand such "wanton and indiscriminate bombardment", and they all flew in their souls, so they lay in the trench in a dementia, squatted behind the wall, and were easily captured by the British and Chinese troops.

"More than 300,000 catties of iron, more than 100,000 catties of fire, distributed to each Qing soldier, enough for him to die ten times......"

Standing on the north bank of the Liuyang River, Bī to the Qing army's defense line of the Dao River, Li Shi summed up to his subordinates. Everyone looked at each other, feeling that the previous blood was boiling in vain, and the "blood and fire" mentioned by the King of Feelings was actually like this?

"What can be solved with silver is not difficult, and if it can be solved with steel and fire, there is no need to fill it with human lives."

Li Xi is still inflating himself, this battle is the most satisfying battle since his rebellion, overwhelming the Qing army with absolute firepower superiority, you have a lot of people, I have more silver, I have more artillery, I have more steel and more iron, and I have more fire, just bombard you from afar, what's the matter? You're coming here and biting me.

Fan Jin sighed and turned the plan in his hand into a ball of paper, on which were written a number of "clever plans" that he had worked hard to draw up from reading the military book.

"I'm afraid I'll scare the Tartar Emperor away......"

The generals were very dissatisfied, the casualties in this battle were surprisingly small, more than 100 were killed in the battle, and nearly 1,000 were wounded, most of which were caused when the pontoon bridge was erected, in order to cover the sappers and fight against the Qing army's daring soldiers. And after crossing the river, everyone felt as if they were cleaning the battlefield for the artillerymen, and there was no decent battle.

"Run? All I want is for him to run."

Li Xi didn't expect to kill Kangxi on the battlefield, and that kind of thing would only appear in the incomparably bloody YY novels. Kangxi's Luan was in the Iron Furnace Temple thirty miles away, and for the Qing army, such a distance was almost equivalent to Kangxi sticking behind their backs, and they could even feel the emperor's breathing.

Kang Mazi not only delivered the goods, but wanted to suppress the morale of the army and fight to the death, so he used the most fierce artillery fire to shock the Qing soldiers and disintegrate the fighting spirit of the Qing soldiers, and at the same time to scare Kangxi and let him see what kind of capital he had to fight with me Li Yan. As long as Kang Mazi fled, the morale of the Qing soldiers collapsed, and this decisive battle was won.

It's as simple as that, it doesn't matter how many enemies you destroy, how many kills you have, or how many cities you occupy. The important thing is that Kangxi mustered up his heart and came to fight with me Li Shi, but he was beaten to the ground, his sè was very inward, and the weakness of the Qing soldiers was no longer hidden. This battle is fundamentally a battle that determines the hearts and minds of the people in the world.

Therefore, Li Xian eagerly hoped that Kangxi would run, so he did not hesitate to shoot most of the shells on this day, deliberately creating a scene of shelling that the sky was falling apart.

"What if he doesn't run?"

Everyone asked this, Li Xian frowned, and asked well, if Kangxi really had that courage?

"That's what you're expecting, fight to the death"

He said in a deep voice, and everyone first frowned, and then they were very depressed.

Today's shelling, even they themselves felt terrified, and it was not at all a power that mortals could resist by courage and blood. They also subconsciously substituted themselves into the Qing soldiers, thinking about whether the infantry of the British and Chinese army would be able to withstand such an artillery bombardment, and the answer was frustration.

The artillery of the Anglo-Chinese army is really ...... There are too many, if you count the eight-pound small cannons, the Eagle Yang Army, the Tiger Ben Army and the Guerrilla Army, the three armies have more than 200 mén cannons. As soon as today's artillery bombardment positions were opened, all the internal guards of Hunan and Guangxi were floating under their feet, and they were both shocked and delighted.

Therefore, Kangxi has to run......