At the end of March in 1617, spring arrived, and the rain gradually increased.

A few days ago, there was a torrential rain, and the water level of the Xiaoqing River in the southwest of the capital skyrocketed. At that time, the northward detachment was stationed in a Zhuangzi in Hexi, and Juniper, who learned the news, immediately led his army to raid and marched fifty miles in only two hours, which was extremely fast.

On rainy days, the anti-thieves' guns and gunpowder are useless. This is equivalent to losing half of the opponent's forces and the strongest means of attack. The swelling of the river is equivalent to cutting off the road to the east of the thief, and it can only go south or west, which is much easier to pursue.

After chasing for half a month to wait for such a great opportunity, how could Juniper let it go? He personally led 2,000 troops, marched on a rainy night, and finally arrived at the ground after having had enough of the hardships - only to find that the anti-thief combat sappers had built a pontoon bridge in an hour and ran away.

Juniper and his family looked at the demolished pontoon bridge in a daze, they never thought that there were still people in this world who could play this trick - relying on wooden stakes and ropes, the thieves were stunned to pull out such a pontoon bridge. Not to mention whether the Ming army has this technology or not, this command and organizational ability alone is seriously insufficient. No craftsman would have done that.

After realizing that the mobility of the officers and troops was seriously insufficient, Juniper could only report to the imperial court to stop pursuing the mode, and changed to the mode of sticking to the stuck point with a net spread on all sides.

The hundreds of thousands of Qinwang people who rushed to Gyeonggi could not be called an army at all, and many of them were people who were requisitioned by the government. These people were still worried about the few acres of land at home that had not been cultivated in the spring, and tried their best to escape. Therefore, it is better to let these people reluctantly chase the thieves, and let them guard the cities and towns.

I don't know if this trick is really effective, anyway, the anti-thief who likes to run around like a mouse actually ran to Tongzhou to stay still this time. Juniper did not dare to be careless for this, and he did not pursue with light cavalry, but returned to the rear to regroup his troops, and joined Liu Wei, another pursuing general, at the Xiaoqing River. The two of them would stand by the river and watch the section left behind after the thieves demolished the pontoon bridge a few days ago.

"Was the river rushing at the time?" Liu Ling, nicknamed Liu Dadao, was a general in the late Ming Dynasty and was nearly sixty years old. He is old and strong, fighting bravely, and tens of thousands of horses under his command, including 3,000 elite family members, and 2,000 Zhejiang soldiers are also very daring to fight.

"On a rainy night, the river was more than 30 zhang wide, and the water was so turbulent that horses could not cross it." Juniper sighed and said: "Du asked the craftsmen in the camp, and they all said that it was impossible to repair the pontoon bridge in such weather. But the surrounding people are rumored to be anti-thieves like heavenly soldiers, and there is still divine help in building bridges on rainy nights. Although my officers and men were skeptical, it also affected their morale. ”

Liu Lingle said: "It's just that it can build bridges, maybe it's just some doorways that we haven't figured out." It is reported that the anti-thief stopped in Tongzhou again, and the two of us joined forces to kill it, and the thief was easy to hear. ”

Easy ear?

Juniper smiled bitterly when he heard this, but it was not easy to refute it to his face. It's been almost a month since I fought with this gang of thieves, and the officials and soldiers haven't taken advantage of it. Tens of thousands of horses sound like a lot, but there are only more than 10,000 that can really fight. Such a bunch of people are running around behind the butt of the anti-thief, and if they are not careful, they will be eaten by it, which really exhausts people to death.

Liu Wei was quite optimistic, and said with a smile: "I heard that the anti-thieves have strange birds that can fly into the sky and throw gunpowder, so Liu specially prepared a batch of 'Divine Fire Flying Crows'. If the anti-thief monster bird comes again, it will definitely be broken. As long as the thieves don't run around, the two of us can just kill them from the ground. If Brother Du has any difficulties, let me take the lead this time. ”

You haven't tasted the power of those thieves!

Juniper slandered in his heart, but he wished to let Liu Ling touch Zhou Qingfeng's moldy head. He arched his hand and said: "Du's subordinates have been chasing and suppressing for days, and they are really tired. Brother Liu is willing to help, and it is better for me to hide my ugliness. ”

The two general soldiers decided on the offensive and defensive strategy, and then took thousands of families to leave first, and rushed to Tongzhou City five miles away in one day. When they learned that the thieves had entered the city and did not leave, the two were overjoyed, and hurriedly led the troops to rush up, cut off the road, and defend the checkpoint. They didn't attack immediately, and when tens of thousands of troops came one after another, they actually surrounded the regiments on the third and outer three layers in Tongzhou.

During this period, the anti-thief monster bird really came out to make trouble, and Liu Wei hurriedly used the 'Divine Fire Flying Crow' built with a lot of money to expel it and prevent the monster bird from approaching his own position. On the ground, his righteous son Liu Zhaosun, as a pioneer, repeatedly tested and confirmed the formation of the anti-thief.

"Father-in-law, the thieves entered Tongzhou and forced the people in the city to build fortifications for them, apparently wanting to entrench here. However, they are not good at building, and the fortifications are built in an extremely hasty manner, that is, some trenches that are not wide or deep are dug within a hundred meters of the gap in the east of the city, which is really ridiculous.

In addition, the anti-thieves were short of manpower, and they left the other walls outside the east side unguarded, allowing our army to seize them. They only built a few barricades in the city and arranged a few spears and firearms. These weak defenses are obviously ignorant of soldiers, and they put themselves in danger and wait for death. Liu Zhaosun was young and vigorous, and he said his own opinions freely.

Liu Wei is a veteran of the battlefield in the end, thinking of the anti-thieves who built a pontoon bridge to escape on a rainy night, he shook his head slightly and said: "If something goes wrong, there must be a demon, if this group of anti-thieves really doesn't know the soldiers, they would have been exterminated a long time ago, how could they wait until now to cause a catastrophe?" If you take someone to investigate, our army will have a large number of generals, and it doesn't matter if some people die. ”

Liu Zhaosun immediately nodded yes, and took someone to investigate. The gap in the east of the city is clear at a glance, and it is unlikely that you want to ambush. So he led his men into the city and drove some miscellaneous soldiers to explore the winding alleys.

This exploration revealed a number of problems - a large number of mine explosives were planted in the complex streets. There were stumbling hair, there were pulling hair, and more than 100 miscellaneous soldiers rushed in, and they almost died after a few bombardments.

The anti-thief's unauthorized use of gunpowder has formed a consensus among the officials and soldiers, and Liu Zhaosun does not dare to risk his own life to try it, and the opposite side is like a dynamite bag bombarded by a ninth-level spell. So when he went back, he suggested that Liu Wei use miscellaneous soldiers to feint and contain him in the city, and kill him from the gap in the east of the city.

Liu Wei led the official army to arrange it outside Tongzhou City, and Zhou Qingfeng also arranged it inside the city. When he saw a large number of officers and soldiers surrounding, he wanted to use a triplane to drop explosives, but he didn't expect the officers and soldiers on the opposite side to use a strange puppet that could fly into the sky. That thing was not afraid of death and would explode when it pounced, which scared Zhou Qingfeng enough. The triplane had no air attack capability, so the matter of dropping explosives had to be stopped.

Neither side of the war wanted to attack from the air easily, so the battlefield returned to the ground. Zhou Qingfeng wanted to teach the officers and soldiers a hard lesson, but he also suffered from insufficient troops and could only defend half of Tongzhou City. With the exception of the eastern side, all the walls were abandoned, allowing the enemy to enter the city for street fighting.

In view of the lack of enthusiasm for fighting without officers supervising the battle in the feudal army, Zhou Qingfeng, who laid a large number of mines, was not worried that the enemy would be able to form a breakthrough from the direction of the city. And the good show he arranged for the officers and soldiers was also in the east of Tongzhou City, which was blown up before, there was a ruin of a city wall more than ten meters long, and now two passages of 45 degrees were cleared out of the ruins.

Two 150 mm 1617 short-barreled heavy guns were arranged at the rear of the passage.

Because Zhao Ze, who was in charge of engineering development, had to defend the Haigai defense line, he had no time to develop artillery for Zhou Qingfeng. But Zhao Ze didn't have to come in person to make artillery, the 'revolutionary army' recruited many craftsmen with experience in making firearms from the Nanjing Military War Bureau, and the Ming army had long had experience in using artillery. So Zhao Ze simply issued a task to let the recruited craftsmen make their own cannons.

The technical details of the cannon were formulated by Zhao Ze, and the Type 1617 short-barreled heavy gun imitated the famous Napoleonic mountain howitzer. The structure of the receding frame, the tall two-wheeled gun mount, with the high and low machine to adjust the firing angle, the direction adjustment can only rely on the adjustment of the gun mount.

The biggest feature of this thing is that it is light and detachable, because it is a wooden structure, the barrel is short, and the total weight is only more than 300 kilograms. The heaviest barrel after dismantling is only a little over 100 kilograms, and the maneuverability is very good. It can even be dragged by a four-wheeled carriage if necessary to keep up with the pace of the troops.

In order to get these two guns right, the engineering department of the 'revolutionary army' carried out a series of technological leaps forwards. Sand casting alone is an extremely versatile black technology. In addition, a hydraulic boring machine was also built, which solved the problem of processing one-meter-deep gun barrels. As for the thread and lock structure of the adjustment machine, it is a problem that must be faced in mechanical production.

Due to the lack of copper, the cannon was cast in wrought iron. However, due to the lack of steel testing equipment, the steel mill did not have much confidence in the quality of its own steel, so the charge of this cannon did not dare to use too much, for fear of exploding.

As a result, the caliber of this gun is not small, but the range of solid shells is only about 500 meters, and the range of shotguns is shortened to 200 meters. Burst shots are two rounds per minute, and continuous shots can only be reduced to one shot a minute.

In total, four guns were manufactured, one of which was damaged during the conduct of extreme tests. One was left in Jinzhou for training, and the remaining two were transported by the newly formed artillery company all the way to Tongzhou, where they were placed among the ruins of the city wall in the east of the city.

In addition to artillery, the 500-ton barge also brought a large number of spare arquebuses, armor, gunpowder, projectiles, medicines, and grain and grass. These things were enough for the northward detachment to hold out in Tongzhou City for a long time.

Zhou Qingfeng had high hopes for these two guns, and asked the artillery company to conduct a live-fire drill before the Ming army came. He is also very satisfied with the results of the training, and is very much looking forward to what kind of attitude Ming Jun will take to face his newly acquired toy.

By the last day of the end of March, both sides of the war felt that they were ready and could not wait to fight. The veteran Liu Wei has already blocked the water in Tongzhou, and tens of thousands of horses have been arranged. He adopted the advice of his son Liu Zhaosun, attacking from both sides and attacking from the east. The first one to go into battle was Yao Guofu, the secretary of the health center who was transferred from Nanjing.

It is said that anti-thief firearms are powerful, but Yao Dusi's subordinates have nothing else, and they are also powerful firearms. He led 2,000 men and horses to follow Liu Ling, and the army carried a large number of side vans. On the first day of the war, these side vans with iron pieces and even wooden shields were pushed towards the gap in the east of Tongzhou and killed.

Each van was equipped with a cannon, as well as two musketeers.

There are many types of firearms in the Ming Dynasty, although most of them are jokes, but some can come in handy. This cannons are one of them. It belonged to the vehicle-mounted medium artillery in the Ming army, which was mounted directly on the car and discharged three in parallel. The barrels are reinforced with iron hoops, each weighing fifty kilograms, and can fire projectiles of about one catty.

Don't laugh, this thing is the same as the tiger squat cannon, it is really a rare and practical firearm in the Ming army. As for the musketers, they were similar to the arquebuses used by the female guards. It's just a little crude, awkward in appearance, and a little heavier in weight, and it's also a weapon that can fire and kill.

These partial vans are cheap to build, there are two or three hundred when they come up, and the front row is all shield cars that strengthen defense. At the front of the shield cart were two layers of one-finger-thick wooden planks, the middle of which was filled with mud and sand. When the war was about to be fought, he poured water into the mud and sand, and even covered it with a thick quilt filled with water.

It's like a dirt tank, it's so cumbersome and heavy that four or five people have a hard time pushing it. The slightest pothole in the ground makes it difficult to move forward. But its defense effect is really good, and ordinary firecrackers are absolutely impenetrable. The Ming army used its own artillery to fight, and it was necessary to fire four or five catties of lead bullets from the general cannon used to defend the city to defeat it.

But the general's cannon is often thousands of catties, and it is inconvenient to carry and inaccurate. There is no such thing in Tongzhou City. Although there was news not long ago that the anti-thieves also brought artillery, it was also said that the anti-thieves' artillery was very small. The Ming army speculated on the power and weight of its own artillery, and felt that the power of the anti-thief artillery should be extremely limited and could not play a big role.

At this moment, the battle began, and Yao Dusi, who was in charge, stood hundreds of meters away and looked at it from a distance, only to see that the thieves seemed to have indeed arranged artillery in the ruins of the city wall. Judging by the size, the cannon was really not very large. What's more, there are only two categories.

"Cut ......, what's the use of two cannons?" Yao Dusi was disdainful in his heart, "There will be fifty light shield cars here and hundreds of cannons." I just listened to let the anti-thief fight, how much can I hit until I blow up? As long as we wait for my car array to approach, the follow-up soldiers will naturally be able to kill them. The first work of this thief is mine. ”