"Well done! Lao Tzu thought that the range of this cannon could not reach the city wall, and he knew that bringing a few more 12-pounder guns would be at least much more flexible than the clumsy siege artillery!" Although he has not received artillery training, he has been in the army for several years, and he is well aware of the basic techniques of artillery, and knows that this phenomenon of straddle fire is actually only one step away from hitting the target. Compared with the embarrassment that the opponent's shells could not reach their own positions, Takahashi Minami is now reassured that he can deploy artillery boldly with confidence.

In the third round of shelling, a cannonball accurately hit the upper part of the city wall, causing earth and rocks to fly, and the city wall was filled with exclamations. The frightened Spanish artillerymen did not even dare to approach the battlements to aim at the enemy outside the city, but simply pushed the loaded guns back to the gun emplacement, and then fired a random shot outside the city - anyway, it was all random shelling, and it seemed that it made no difference whether to aim or not.

Two more 12-pounder guns were soon deployed outside the city, and a total of five guns began shelling the eastern walls of Santo Domingo at a rate of two minutes. Since the artillery used by the Haihan Army has been standardized production, as long as the firing angle and charge amount are uniformly calibrated, the landing points of shells fired on the same artillery position are extremely concentrated, and the number of shells hitting the city wall has begun to rise sharply. Five rounds later, a cannonball passed through the battlements of the city wall accurately, tearing the two hapless gunners to pieces.

"All hidden!" López had to give a reluctant order. The two unlucky ghosts who were torn apart by the cannonball just now were only about three meters away from him, and the flesh and blood were splashed all over him, if the angle of the cannonball's chamber was slightly off, maybe the unlucky ghost who was hit would have been replaced by him.

If both sides were within range of the opponent's artillery, then the Spaniards could probably fight hard, but now it is clear that the defending side is being beaten unilaterally, and although they are trying to counterattack, it is clear that they cannot create problems for the attacking side to equalize the distance. At this time, if you still insist that the gunners fight on the city walls, you will undoubtedly use them as cannon fodder. In order to avoid further losses of valuable gunners, López had to let the gunners retreat under the city walls to avoid the limelight, leaving only a few soldiers to watch out of the city from the shelter at the head of the city. If the opponent is going to use infantry to attack the city next, then it will be too late to arrange for the artillery to return to the city wall to operate.

It wasn't until the five guns were hot and had to be stopped to cool down that Takahashi Minami picked up the binoculars and carefully examined the results. At least two percent of the nearly 100 shells hit the eastern wall, some of which showed obvious signs of cracking and collapse, and the battlements on the wall had already been destroyed. Although it was impossible to see the casualties of the opposing side through the telescope, Takahashi Minami believed that the artillery bombardment would not be fruitless, as can be inferred from the signs that the opposing side had withdrawn its defensive forces from the city walls.

The only thing that made Takahashi Minami unhappy was that the 48-pounder guns were still stuck on the way to get here, and it was estimated that it would be good to be able to reach the line of fire tonight. However, the soldiers found a few scrawny ploughing oxen on the farms outside the city, and they had brought them to be used as animal engines, which should be effective in speeding up the deployment of siege artillery.

After the shelling ended, Sun Zhen gradually calmed down from the initial excitement. Sun Zhen was not idle when the artillerymen were fighting bare-chested, because the defenders in the city could not pose a real threat to the artillery positions outside the city, the troops who were originally on guard could only do the work of transporting heavy baggage - responsible for transporting ammunition to the artillery positions. It was a real heavy job, as the infantry worked together to push truckloads of heavy ammunition to the front line, and then had to be unloaded to the side of the gun and stacked neatly for use.

Sun Zhen saw that the veterans had taken off their military uniforms and bare their shoulders after sweating, so he also took off his shirts in the same way, carefully folded them and put them in a clean place next to them. When going out on the expedition, it is inconvenient to clean the military uniform, although this colorful background is also dirty, but Sun Zhen will still try to take care of this hard-won battle robe. Fortunately, he was originally a farmer's child, and he did a lot of heavy work, but he didn't realize how hard this errand of carrying ammunition was.

This kind of rough work was originally supposed to be done by the military and civilian men or logistics troops, but Qian Tiandun did not arrange a large number of civilian men to accompany the army in this operation, considering that the local combat environment in Tamsui River is relatively complex, and the supply capacity of the special operations battalion fighting alone is limited, and the scale of combat personnel that can be maintained is limited. Of course, it is not easy to say whether Qian Tiandun has the idea of tempering the troops in this way.

Takahashi Nan will definitely not raise any questions about the arrangement of his superiors, Qian Tiandun will give few people, so he will use the method of fewer people, but in this way, some combat units will be divided into stages to take on the task of doing rough work.

"Report to the battalion commander, the artillery has been maintained, please instruct whether to continue firing!" the commander of the artillery company asked Takahashi Minami for instructions.

In addition to the navy, there is also an army artillery company specially transferred from Guangdong. Although the special operations battalion also has an artillery establishment, due to the special combat style of the special operations battalion, the standard heavy weapons are only 3-pounder guns that are easy to maneuver and transport, and there are certain differences in operation and tactics from the 12-pounder standard artillery equipment of the army's mainstream equipment, while siege heavy artillery requires specially trained artillery to exert its power.

Takahashi Minami looked at the sky that had gradually darkened, and ordered: "Take a break for the time being, fire a few shots at an hour-long interval, and don't let the people in the city be idle!"

"Understood!" the artillery company commander saluted and took the order to leave.

In the course of such a tough battle, in addition to striking with force, it is also very important to find ways to destroy the defender's psychological defense. Continuous artillery bombardment is undoubtedly one of the effective ways to break the will of the defenders to fight, but the firepower of the special operations battalion is not enough to carry out non-stop artillery strikes on the city of Santo Domingo. This keeps the defenders in a state of high nervousness, and may also make it easier for the siege battles to follow.

"Let the platoon commander of the reconnaissance platoon report to me immediately, I have a task to hand over to him!" Takahashi Minami looked at the dead silence of Santo Domingo in the distance, and continued to arrange troops.

Compared with the Haihan special battalion, which controlled the initiative on the battlefield, it was difficult for the Spaniards in the city to maintain a stable relationship with the unknown situation in the outside world. Gusman was also happy when he received the news from his servant that the defenders had gained the upper hand in the artillery battle with the enemy, but when he stood on the balcony to observe the movement of the city's defenses, he found that there were no gunners fighting on the gun emplacements on the walls, and all the rumbling guns he heard came from outside the city. Gusman even witnessed two cannonballs passing through the city, directly into a certain part of the city.

Although Gusman was also a layman, he was at least much better than the uneducated servant, and at a glance he naturally knew that the battle situation was not at all the situation that the servant boasted of when he returned, and the defenders had obviously been suppressed by the enemy's artillery fire to the point that they could not raise their heads!

"Fools! all fools!" said Gusman, who was so angry that the servant, who had heard a noise outside, pushed the door in and asked, "Your Excellency, you called me?"

Gusman went up and slapped him in the face: "You idiot dare to lie about the military situation, are you tired of it?"

The servant didn't know why, so he hurriedly fell to the ground in a panic and pleaded guilty. Gusman kicked him a few times to vent his anger, but slowly calmed down and began to think about how to deal with it. But he was not from a military background, and he couldn't think of any effective way to retreat from the enemy, so he held back for a long time before he came up with a not-so-clever idea: "You go and ask Captain López again, is there any way to get out safely now." Remember, don't ask in front of anyone else, understand?"

"Understood... Understood!The villain is going to Captain López!" The servant covered his bruised cheeks and hurriedly exited the room.

Later, after listening to the servant's question, López had a look of disdain on his face that could not be concealed: "Master Gusman probably forgot that without the order of his superiors, escaping in wartime is a felony to go to the gallows!"

The servant hastened to argue, "Master Gusman didn't mean that, he just wanted to know if he could send an envoy to Chicken Coop Harbor for help. ”

"Presumably, Lord Gusman is very interested in carrying out this mission in person?" López said sarcastically, "Unfortunately, the risk of wanting to get out of here is very high, there are enemies outside the city, and there are enemies in the mountains, if there is no extremely strong military quality as a guarantee, I am not very optimistic about the possibility that Lord Gusman can cross the battlefield to the Chicken Coop Harbor." My building yì is...... Master Gusman had better stay here honestly, so that at least he could spend a little more time for his country. ”

Even if the servant was stupid, he could hear the sarcasm in López's words, but in his capacity, he didn't dare to talk back to a captain officer with real power, so he could only pretend not to know, and asked, "So did Captain López send a messenger?"

"I've already picked a candidate, and I'll leave when twilight falls. You can go back and tell Master Sù Gusman to let him sleep in peace. López was also not interested in continuing the conversation, and voluntarily ended the conversation.

"López, this rude fellow! next time I will teach him a good lesson in the debriefing report!" Gusman also felt a little unbearable after listening to the reply brought back by the servant, but because of his current appearance, it was impossible for him to go to the other party's trouble, so he could only fight in his own place.

Although Gusman really wanted to get out of this ghost place, he also knew that López's statement was indeed true, but he still had a glimmer of hope before, hoping that López could send someone to send him to break out and leave, but obviously the other party had no intention of giving face to his boss. Gusman doesn't seem to have much else to do right now other than go to bed and wait for the news.

But now that even a good night's sleep had become a luxury, and not long after Gusman lay in bed, he heard the roar of artillery coming from outside the city.

"Can't these damn Haihan people stop for the night? it's already dark and restless!" Gusman, lying under the covers, could only curse through gritted teeth, the only means of counterattack he had at his disposal. But perhaps it was his curses that worked, and the cannon only went off for a moment before it fell silent. However, after doing this, Gusman was already tossed so that he couldn't sleep, and could only continue to mumble curses in the bed for the enemies who suddenly appeared outside the city.

However, López, who is tasked with commanding operations, is far less relaxed than his superiors, and in the situation of complete passivity in the battle situation, López must try to keep the personnel in the castle to continue to maintain the will to resist. Even if you can't defeat the enemy forces outside the city, you must at least give the people inside the city a little hope, let them know that there is still a way to hold on and wait for reinforcements.

López gathered Delgado and the other twelve men he had selected, and had the quartermaster distribute simple maps to each of them, with personal identification in Spanish on the back, so that they would not be executed as spies when they arrived at Chicken Coop Harbor. In addition, there were weapons, fresh water and food rations for three days. Delgado had divided them into six groups and mapped out different escape routes. And López, in addition to cheering them on, also gave each of them five silver coins as a reward. If any of them are able to complete the quest, they will also receive a special reward of ten silver coins. Of course, if they have the life to get the money.

This operation was completely planned and commanded by Delgado, and even the timing of the departure of the various detachments was in his hands. After five of the six squads were set off, López finally couldn't help but ask Delgado, "Are you going to go with the last team?"

"No, I'm not going to go with anyone. Delgado said unabashedly: "These squads are all cannon fodder used to attract attention from the outside, and they are likely to all be caught." If I had set off with them, I would probably have ended up in the same situation. ”

"And do you have any other secret passages to get out of here?" asked López curiously.

"There are no secret passages. Delgado shook his head and said, "The last group of people will be the easiest to catch, so I will follow them and set out until they are caught, and then go to the enemy blockade of Guò." When they catch the previous team, they let their guard down, so I have a good chance of getting through. ”

López had to admit that this hunter-turned-soldier did have a natural cunning, and this method of exploiting other people's psychological loopholes was indeed difficult to guard against in advance. This guy has broken through twice and successfully asked for help, but it is not all due to good luck.