Chapter 19: The Parting Hook

When the city was attacked again, the blue flag Gushan Ezhen Dachun first asked for his life. At a stop in Luohe Town, Li Yan took advantage of the loophole, and the elite of the Qing army's two blue flags suffered a lot of losses, and Bolo's plan to attack from both sides also failed, which made Da Chun deeply ashamed. Therefore, when the Qing army was about to start a second attack on Jubaomen, Da Chun was the first to stand up.

At the time of the first battle, the Green Battalion soldiers only encountered one artillery fire, and the formation was in chaos, and Bolo was also very dissatisfied with this, and the idea of having the Eight Banners General take charge of the Green Battalion's attack also germinated in his heart. There is no way, the main force of the Eight Banners has stayed in Jiangbei Town to guard the core areas of Gyeonggi and Shanxi, and the configuration of the flags in the south is too small. In order to improve the combat power of the Green Battalion in the short term, Bolo came up with such an idea.

But this move caused complaints from the generals of the Han army. In their opinion, Bolo undoubtedly wants to deprive them of their military power, and even more so to let the green battalion soldiers be stepping stones and cannon fodder.

In order to better control the green battalion, Bolo ordered his henchmen to lead the two blue flags to form a law enforcement team, and enforce the law in front of the battle.

Nanjing is close to the Yangtze River to the west and north, and the Purple Mountain is to the east, as well as the Qinhuai River and the Jinchuan River. In the Battle of Anqing, the Qing army's naval division was burned clean by Huang Gongfu, and if he wanted to attack Nanjing from the waterway, he could only be a fool's dream. Therefore, the relatively gentle terrain in the south became the main attack area of the Qing army.

Taking advantage of the rising sun, the Qing army began to attack in a big way. Under Bolo's strict orders, Kong Youde and Shi Tingzhu had to move the artillery positions of Wuzhen Chaoha forward and concentrate on bombarding the walls and gates of Jubaomen Urn City. Bolo's move was also intended to be a fierce attack regardless of losses, as long as it broke through a little, the Qing army besieging the city would have a chance.

Uzhen Chaoha sent more than 100 artillery pieces to move forward under the cover of specially made shield vehicles. Although the cannon roared, the gunner also fired with all his might. But in the face of the precise strikes of the Ming army's field artillery, a third of the artillery was quickly blown away.

Just as Wuzhen Chaoha's troops were confronting the Ming army, a large group of Qing troops began to move towards the moat outside the city walls in a loose formation. Since Shi Kefa and Yan Yingyuan had already implemented the strategy of fortifying the walls and clearing the wilderness early on, the Qing army did not capture many Ming people, so. The task of filling in the moats and trenches can only be done by the soldiers of the Green Battalion. Therefore, the dead soldiers who rushed to the front were carrying sacks and planks of all sizes, hoping to pass through the moat.

Fortunately for the Qing army, the artillery fire of the Ming army seemed to be attracted by Wuzhen Chaoha, so it has been fighting fiercely with Wuzhen Chaoha's troops, and the artillery fire on both sides is very lively. In comparison, the Ming army's firearms and other firearms have never appeared.

With the advance of Wuzhen Chaoha's artillery, the Ming army gradually increased its firepower, and by the time the Qing army's infantry reached the moat, Wuzhen Chaoha could not organize a decent counterattack. Kong Youde was heartbroken to death, watching the well-built artillery being smashed and swallowed up by the Ming army's artillery fire one after another, so he could only unwillingly order the remaining artillery to retreat.

In other words, when the Qing infantry attacked the moat, they could no longer get the artillery support of the Wuzhen Chaoha Division.

Da Chun was dressed in two layers of thick armor, with two knives on his back, and a customary shun knife in his hand, and rushed to the moat first. Before he could order his soldiers to start filling the ditch as soon as possible. The feathered arrows that lit the fire in the city were shot down in a clump. A fire broke out on the moat. It's obvious. The moat had already been filled with oil and the like.

Da Chun didn't care much, anyway, the sack was filled with sand and gravel and the like. Just right to put out the flames. But the moat outside the city was much larger than that of Anqing City, and thousands of soldiers threw sandbags into it, but it had no effect. Dachun had no choice but to order the soldiers to run back and continue to fill them with sandbags and other objects.

In this way, the casualties of the Qing army can be imagined. The feather arrows and fire bolts at the head of the city also began to exert their power at this time, and the corpses of the Qing army continued to fall into the moat. Dachun jumped to his feet with a wooden shield on the edge of the moat. But there was nothing to be done.

Fortunately, in the blink of an eye, the Qing soldiers had already sent the ladder and other things up, and Da Chun simply ordered his subordinates to push the shield cart and artillery cart into the river, and set up the ladder on the moat, so as to pass quickly.

The scorching of flames on the surface of the river. Let the weather in February be like the height of summer, the Qing army fell into the river if he was careless, and suddenly it was a bone-chilling cold, and the feather arrows and stones on the city fell like raindrops. However, the musketeers of the Ming army did not fire very violently as if to save ammunition, but the accuracy of the shooting was astonishing. They seem to be deliberately looking for officers of the Qing army, just like the low-level officers such as Niu Lu Ezhen, Qian Zong, and General Jiang, a single gunshot can take the life of a Qing army officer. As a result, the non-commissioned officers of the Qing army lost the command of the officers, and began to be somewhat chaotic.

Even Da Chun has also received the "attention" of many Ming military gunners, the wooden shield on the top of the front has long been full of bullet holes, and Goshha next to him also acts as Da Chun's meat shield, and in the blink of an eye, several shots fell into the water.

Da Chun was also shot in the shoulder, but fortunately he wore two layers of armor, so he was not penetrated, and finally stepped on the cloud ladder to cross the moat. Looking back, although the casualties were unprecedentedly large, a few pontoon bridges were finally built on the river with ladders, and the Qing army was coming under the city wall in a steady stream.

Dachun's ears were buzzing with the artillery, and he couldn't even hear the words he shouted. Under his beckoning, the soldiers in a hurry hurriedly put the ladder on the city, and the soldiers of the Ming army pushed down the ladder with a hook, and at the same time poured down the large barrel of gold juice, and the rolling wood and stone were thrown down in a desperate way, and the corpses of the Qing army were soon piled up under the city wall.

The stench of gold juice, the stench of rotting flesh, the pungent smell of strong gunsmoke, and the sky-high firelight made the entire city wall feel like hell on earth.

Seeing the soldiers fall in front of him, Da Chun couldn't help but feel angry, just set up a ladder with several soldiers, Da Chun planned to be the first to climb to the city, but in this noise, everyone heard a clanging sound, and this sound seemed to come from behind.

Looking for the sound, there were ropes slowly emerging from the river, and looking at the direction of the ropes, it seemed as if they were hanging from the top of the city. Dachun looked closely, and it turned out that the ropes had indeed hung from the top of the city and thrown into the river, but it was strange that the raging fire had not been able to break the ropes.

After checking it again, these moving ropes did suddenly increase their speed, but suddenly a series of miserable screams rang in their ears. Ropes emerged from the river like dragons, and then converged towards the city at great speed. The Qing troops next to each other along the way kept screaming.

Da Chun couldn't help but be shocked, thinking that this was another new trick made by the Ming army, so he hurriedly dodged to the side, leaned next to the city wall, and saw the rope that was quickly closing up along the city wall. It turned out to be a rope made of iron wires intertwined with tree roots, no wonder water and fire are inviolable. There were barbs and hooks erected in the iron rope sea, and I think it was the barbs and hooks on these ropes that injured the Qing troops along the road.

Before Rong Dachun thought about it, a Goshha next to him was hooked by a hook, the rope should be controlled by the Ming army in the city, and under the vigorous pulling, that Goshha was pulled up from the ground and went straight to the city, the hook went deep into the armor and flesh, although it was a non-stop scream, that Goshha had no ability to resist at all, and in the blink of an eye, it was dragged by the Ming army to the head of the city, and a moment later, a headless corpse was thrown down.

Such a tragic situation, Da Chun's side was everywhere, some ropes, actually hooked and cut several Qing soldiers, dragged to the city together, some Qing soldiers fell halfway, turned into a puddle of meat in an instant, some were dragged to the city, and the headless corpse was thrown down in a blink of an eye.

The Qing soldiers were terrified, and many of them brandished their swords to cut the iron rope, but it had no effect at all. Some people wanted to cling to the rope and use the power of the Ming army to kill the city, but they found that the iron rope was smeared with a lot of grease, and the flames in the river were scorching, and they knew that it was impossible at all.

No one knows how many such iron ropes are buried in this moat, and the Qing soldiers who finally killed the Qing soldiers under the city wall have nowhere to escape, some of the iron ropes are intertwined with each other, the Ming army pulls hard, but it pulls down a large area of the Qing army, the Qing army is injured by the barbs and hooks above, but it is unable to break free, and it can't die for a while, so it can only be helpless to scream loudly.

The fighting spirit in his chest dissipated without a trace in an instant in the face of such a scene, looking at the tragic situation of his subordinates, Da Chun's legs have begun to weaken a little, and there are few people left in Goshha around him, without waiting for Da Chun's order, he has already scrambled to retreat to the other side of the moat with Da Chun.

But they didn't realize that the Ming army in the city had already set up hundreds of giant crossbows, and one of them was aimed at Dachun's back.

With a "bang", the huge crossbow arrows on the giant crossbow shot out, and the thunderous pounced on the cloud ladder that Dachun and they were forcibly crossing.

With a bang, the bolt pierced the ladder and went deep into the river. The Ming army at the head of the city couldn't wait to pick up the wooden frame next to it, and quickly recovered the rope bound to the crossbow arrows.

The ladder was pierced, but Da Chun and the others were in a dilemma, but before they could react, the crossbow arrows shot into the river suddenly bounced out of the water, and the three hooks on the crossbow arrows more than six inches long flashed with the light of the morning sun, and smashed straight towards Da Chun.

Da Chun didn't have the slightest preparation, he just felt a chill on his right shoulder, and then another crossbow arrow came unexpectedly, but the iron hook on it was hooking his right thigh, and in the exclamation of the Goshkhas, Da Chun's body rose from the ladder. (To be continued......)