On the 28th day of the fifth lunar month of the second year of Jianlong, the news that Lu Qian wantonly arrested and told the truth about the assassination incident in Jurong County, identified ten people, including two "dark feather" agents, as the so-called secret agents of the Zhou army and showed them to the public, and finally caused the news that these ten people were beaten to death by the onlookers was sent to the camp of the Southern Expeditionary Army outside Jinling City.

If it was just this one thing, it might not completely anger Wang Kunjun and Xu Shaoan and others. But at the same time as receiving this news, the "Dark Feather" branch in Jinling City also sent a piece of bad news: the Jinling Shenwei Army, which was originally regarded as the object of the struggle and hoped to persuade Li Yu to surrender through his status as a close minister of the lord, commanded the Huangfu Jixun, but Li Yu was disliked by Li Yu because of his passive defense and blinding the lord, and ordered his father and son to be executed. Unexpectedly, he was escorted out of the palace by the forbidden army, and before he had time to open the knife and behead, he was killed by the Jinling defenders who rushed to the palace gate after hearing the news, and ate his flesh.

Speaking of which, since the agents of the Jinling branch of the "Dark Feather" Jinling branch on the twelfth day of the fifth lunar month of the second year of Jianlong managed to get in touch with him, and told him that Wang Kunjun, the commander of the Southern Expeditionary Army, had promised that as long as he could try to persuade Li Yu to surrender, or make an internal response for the Zhou army during the siege of the city, after breaking the city, he would not only ensure his current glory and wealth, but also protect his good words in front of the Great Zhou Emperor, and give him the title of knight, Huangfu Jixun's original reluctance to be an enemy of the Great Zhou and his intention to surrender became more and more intense. And once a person has a very strong mind about something, his words and deeds, and every move will have obvious tendencies and purposes. As a result, after receiving encouragement from Wang Kunjun, the supreme commander of the Zhou army outside the city and the first minister of the Great Zhou Dynasty, Huangfu Jixun, who had a strong intention of surrendering, not only became more passive in the defense of the city, neither strengthened the preparation of equipment nor strengthened the training of soldiers and generals, but also imposed heavy penalties on those subordinates who took the initiative to ask for help, wanted to go out of the city to fight with the Zhou army, or planned to sneak attack the Zhou army's camp at night, and were whipped and locked up in public. What's more, Huangfu Jixun also sent his son Huangfu Shaojie into the palace to persuade Li Yu to surrender. As a result, he was not only rejected by Li Yu, but also severely reprimanded his son.

However, it is precisely because of this that Huangfu Jixun also figured out Li Yu's hole cards, and knew that unless it really reached the moment when the mountains and rivers were exhausted and the Zhou army was approaching the palace city, otherwise, I am afraid it would be difficult for the lord of Jiangnan to say the word surrender. As a result, Huangfu Jixun immediately adjusted his strategy, putting persuading Li Yu to surrender in a secondary position, and focusing on the Zhou army's siege of the city for a period of time in the future. Since then, he has not only become more passive and slack in the aspect of city defense, but also in order to reduce Li Yu's attention to the city defense issue, and in order to prevent Li Yu from interrogating him about the situation of city defense and discovering flaws in it, Huangfu Jixun on the one hand tried to intercept military newspapers from all over the country, and on the other hand, on the pretext that he was busy with military affairs and had no time to take care of it, he almost no longer entered the palace to pay homage to Li Yu.

Therefore, from the arrival of the Zhou army in the city to the end of May of the lunar calendar, more than ten days have passed, and the lord Li Yu not only does not know the situation of the war in various places, but even the Zhou army has surrounded Jinling City, Jinling City is in danger, and the Jiangnan is about to be overturned in the precipitous form. As a result, when he suddenly had a whim on the 28th day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar, he climbed to the head of Jinling City without warning, and saw that his city defense was lax and unprepared, while the Zhou army under the city was a continuous military wall, and Jinling was already tightly surrounded, and it was difficult for him to fly, and it was difficult for King Qin's reinforcements to break through the enemy formation to rescue Jinling. Such a situation not only made Li Yu frightened and inexplicable, like falling into an ice cave, but also reduced his trust in Huangfu Jixun to the lowest point.

Although he remembered his father's exploits and did not reprimand him on the spot, as soon as he returned to the palace, Li Yu completely broke out, not only scolded Huangfu Jixun and his son Huangfu Shaojie, but also immediately ordered the removal of all official positions, and pushed the father and son out of the palace and beheaded them to show the public. I don't know who released the news that Huangfu Jixun was hated by the lord of the country because of the lax defense of the city, that the holy family had been lost, and that he would be executed, but before Huangfu Jixun and his son walked out of the palace gate, they were surrounded by a group of soldiers who had long been resentful and full of hatred, and they were cut into meat in the blink of an eye, and they were divided into meat and food for the soldiers of the army.

Subsequently, Li Yu appointed a new commander to defend the city, and on the other hand, he ordered that there would be those who dared to surrender to the Zhou, and ordered all the prefectures and counties in the south of the Yangtze River that had not yet been captured by the Zhou army to defend to the death. Although not all the families of Jiangnan county officials and generals are in Jinling, because of this will, they have accepted the idea of surrendering the city, and there are not a few Jiangnan officials and generals who resolutely resist to the end. As a result, Wang Kunjun and others, who originally thought that with the might of the Zhou army, they could make the states and counties in the south of the Yangtze River invincible and surrender without a fight, and then Jinling, which became a lonely city, would lose their fighting spirit and have it at their fingertips, after receiving this news, they had to change their plans, give up the previous policy of being too soft, and made up their minds to make a heavy move, showing the thunderous means of the Zhou army to the Jiangnan court, civil and military officials, and gentry and the common people, prompting them to lose their undue illusions and end the Jiangnan War as soon as possible.

If you want to play a heavy hand, you must have a target that is used as a target, and under the current situation, the most suitable place to do this force display area is Jurong County, which has the worst image and the most hatred in the minds of Wang Kunjun and Xu Shaoan, and has long wanted to get rid of it, and at the same time has the most convenient troop deployment. Therefore, after a short discussion, Wang Kunjun and Xu Shaoan decided to use the power of Mount Tai and the power of thunderbolt to carry out the most fierce attack on Jurong County since the formation of the Beiping Army.

As far as the current Southern Expeditionary Army is concerned, the most effective, simplest, and most appropriate way to attack a well-fortified city is to bombard, a combat method that can not only cause great damage, but also make people intuitively and profoundly feel its power. Therefore, on the 30th day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar of the second year of Jianlong, after full preparation, Wang Kunjun ordered the configuration adjustment of the left and right armies: the main force of the first regiment of the Marine Corps, which originally belonged to the right route army, and half of the eight "security regiments" were transferred to Jinling City to strengthen the encirclement of Jinling City; The artillery regiment and the first independent artillery regiment of the 1st Infantry Division of the "Feilong Army", which originally belonged to the Left Route Army, were transferred to the city of Jurong County to strengthen the artillery firepower of the Right Route Army.

As a result, the artillery of three divisional artillery regiments and one independent artillery regiment with a total of four regiments of artillery firepower under the city of Jurong County, plus the artillery of each infantry regiment and cavalry regiment, and the 18 sixteen-barrel rocket launchers of the rocket artillery battalion directly under the jurisdiction of the General Headquarters of the Southern Expeditionary Army, the artillery under the command of the Right Route Army actually exceeded five regiments, equipped with more than 400 artillery pieces of various types and calibers -- not including the small-caliber mortars belonging to the battalions and companies. The scale of such firepower can be called the largest artillery cluster since the formation of the Beiping Army.

What kind of power can be exerted by the artillery firepower of such a scale gathered in one place, it is said that ordinary soldiers of the Zhou army, and even senior officers at the division commander level such as Wang Baoshan and Wu Pingdong have no experience to talk about. In the current era, only those who have come from modern society and have seen the scenes of modern warfare through various channels can have a more realistic understanding of this. Therefore, when they learned that there would be the largest artillery fire strike in the history of Jurong City, the officers and men of the Right Route Army were naturally excited that they would be able to personally experience such a "grand occasion," while the officers and men of the Left Route Army deeply regretted that they had not had the opportunity to see such a historical moment. Fortunately, Wang Kunjun, Xu Shao'an and other commanders were understanding, although due to the need to encircle Jinling City, they could not transfer the Left Route Army to Jurong to observe the battle, but also ordered that in addition to some of the officers who stayed on duty, the officers above the battalion and battalion level on the left route, as well as the officers above the commander of the Wu Yue Army on the South Road, formed an observation group and went to Jurong County with Wang Kunjun to personally experience this very rare action. In addition, Wang Kunjun also ordered to gather more than 300 local gentry from the surrounding area of Jinling and take him to Jurong County to experience this shocking operation - after the shelling of Jurong, these local gentry and ordinary people will be sent to Jinling City and other important cities in the south of the Yangtze River, and use their personal experience to promote the might of the Zhou army to the soldiers and civilians in the city, to undermine their morale and fighting spirit, weaken their determination to resist to the end, and provide assistance for the capture of Jinling City at the lowest cost.

On the second day of the sixth lunar month of the second year of Jianlong, the fully prepared artillery regiments, battalions, and companies, under the cover of infantry and cavalry, quickly entered the combat position north of Jurong County in accordance with the pre-demarcated area and began to set up positions. In just half an hour, the artillery positions were laid out, and more than 400 artillery pieces of various types and calibers were ready to be fired.

On the morning of the second day of the sixth lunar month of the second year of Jianlong, Wang Kunjun, who was standing on the high watchtower, put down the telescope in his hand and ordered the herald standing beside him without any tone: "Open the cannon." ”

When the herald heard this, he immediately waved the red order flag in his hand three times in the direction of Jurong City. With the wave of the command flag in his hand, the same order was passed from the watchtower of the Chinese army to all artillery regiments, artillery battalions, and gunner companies, and even to every gunner. Thirty seconds after Wang Kunjun gave the order to open fire, the muzzles of all the artillery on the artillery positions flashed with fire and spewed out gunpowder smoke almost simultaneously, and more than 400 shells of various types and calibers flew towards Jurong City, bringing death and destruction to the officials, guards, and gentry in the city who did not know that they were about to recover.

Due to the different firing distances, different flight speeds, and different firing angles, although more than 400 shells were fired almost simultaneously, the time of landing was obvious and different. Therefore, the first wave of more than 400 shells brought to the gentry and people in the city not a straight punch, but a continuous combination of punches. Violent explosions one after another, clouds of dense smoke, rose and fell in Jurong City, bringing this small city from the world to hell.

The artillery bombardment of Jurong County lasted for nearly half an hour, and until the end of the third round of rocket artillery firing as the finale, more than 400 artillery pieces of the Southern Expeditionary Army fired more than 10,000 shells at Jurong County. If it weren't for the need to reserve enough artillery shells for follow-up operations, Wang Kunjun even deliberately knocked out all the nearly 30,000 shells currently in reserve by the Southern Expeditionary Army. Rao is like this, and this shelling of Jurong also created a record since the establishment of the "Flying Dragon Army", which can be called unprecedented.

Although for a single county seat, Jurong City, which has a circumference of fifteen miles, is not small. But the continuous bombardment of nearly 10,000 shells is still a catastrophe for Jurong City, which covers an area of less than four square kilometers. The northern wall, which was directly facing the Zhou artillery position, was completely destroyed, and the walls in the other three directions were also badly damaged. It can be said that all kinds of buildings and dwellings in the city have withstood the baptism of artillery fire, and there are very few houses and buildings in the entire county that can still remain intact after the shelling, and there are many houses and buildings that have been completely destroyed or partially destroyed. And the number of casualties among the soldiers and civilians in the city has created the largest loss in Jiangnan County since the Southern Expedition. Among the total 25,000 soldiers and civilians -- 8,000 gentry and 2,000 defenders in the city, 10,000 gentry and 5,000 reinforcements fled into the city around the county seat, including several henchmen and cronies of Lu Juan, the initiator of this desperate road in Jurong County, more than 5,000 people died in the shelling, nearly 5,000 were seriously injured, and the remaining 15,000 soldiers and civilians were almost all injured to a greater or lesser extent - Lu Qian himself had his left arm blown off, and the few of his men who were lucky enough not to die also hung up their lotteries, and two of them probably did not live for three days. Moreover, due to the limitations of medical conditions, it is almost difficult for seriously injured people in this era to survive. Therefore, the death toll from the shelling in the city will continue to grow rapidly in the next few days, and it is not impossible to exceed 10,000 people. In this way, the shelling, which lasted only half an hour, took away nearly 40 percent of the lives in Jurong County, and its current situation is no longer enough to describe it in a tragic way.

The miserable scene in Jurong County made the more than 300 local gentry and people in the south of the Yangtze River who entered the city with the Zhou army deeply shocked, and at the same time, it also made them fear, awe and surrender to the Zhou army from their bones. And with the polite sending away of these more than 300 local gentry and people in the south of the Yangtze River, the tragic situation of Jurong County and the strength and terror of the Zhou army were also brought to Jinling, to all parts of the south of the Yangtze River, and to all the secession regimes south of the Yangtze River, so that the small courts south of the Yangtze River, the civil and military ministers in the small court, and the gentry under the rule of the civil and military ministers really understood the power of the Zhou army, and really had a fear and timidity for the Zhou army, and it has continued.

At the beginning of the second afternoon of the sixth month of the lunar calendar in the second year of Jianlong, under the leadership of the old villagers in the city, Lu Qian and all his surviving subordinates were found by the surviving defenders and people in Jurong City. Immediately, the Jurong soldiers and civilians tied up Lu Qian and others with ropes, escorted out the already ruined Jurong City, and sent them to the front of the Zhou army camp to beg for surrender to the other party.

On the third day of the sixth month of the lunar calendar in the second year of Jianlong, Lu Qian, Zhen Xiang and others planned, participated in the planning, and carried out the assassination, or were used to participate in the assassination of the founding uncle, the deputy commander of the palace front division, the general of the right Jin Wuwei, the defense envoy of Yanzhou, the deputy commander of the Southern Expeditionary Army, and the commander of the Right Route Army, Zeng Zhilin, who had been beheaded outside the yamen of Jurong County, which had become a ruined wall.

On the seventh day of the sixth lunar month of the second year of Jianlong, after appointing a new chief official and commander of Jurong County, and transferring 5,000 people from two regiments of the "Security Army" to garrison the city, Wang Kunjun led the Right Route Army and the artillery units temporarily seconded to support it left Jurong and went to Jinling.