Chapter 254: Under the City of Suzhou

"There should be more than 10,000 troops in Suzhou City, so there is no need to worry about fighting."

The Dingwu army, which was a war horse, rushed to the city of Suzhou, and if the horsepower accelerated, it would be a day, and if it was not delayed for a long time along the way, it would not have been delayed until the third day.

Chen Cao put away the Qianli tube, and then turned his head to look at Ning Guoxing, who had been upgraded to the commander of the artillery division: "How is it, has the new artillery been fired in the past?" ”

The wheeled rear-loading rifled guns designed by Lin Liangcai and other artillery academies are only four even now, and they are still absolute treasures.

The rifled guns were more sophisticated in their shell production and more complicated in their use of kits, with only twenty shells for four guns now.

Chen Cao uses the English word 'P' to represent the meaning of artillery, and now this rifled gun is named P-1 field gun, the caliber is 105 mm, more than 10 mm larger than the caliber of the Hongyi cannon, the focus is on the long range, or belongs to the open flower shell.

"It's okay to fight, but I don't dare to fire the cannon indiscriminately, the cannonballs are precious, and the last general thinks that it is still mainly based on the Shenwu cannon and flower shells, and deter them first."

The source of the Shenwu cannon is improved on the basis of the Hongyi cannon, Chen Cao is naturally impossible to abandon this relatively simple artillery before the new artillery is not fully covered, and the production of the Shenwu cannon's open shells is much simpler than the copper-wrapped trigger shells, and the quantity is naturally more.

"First break the urn tower for me, shock them, and then send someone to negotiate with them, first see what those people in Suzhou City mean."

Since Chen Cao gave the order, Ning Guoxing hurriedly ordered to go down and arrange all the twenty Shenwu cannons carried by the army in front of the two-mile array.

"Zhuyuan Loading..."

"Ignition..."

"Put..."

'Knock knock...'

Not to mention twenty, that is, the shells of ten Shenwu cannons all smashed on the urn city tower, which was also like closing the eyes and hitting peaches, after a round of artillery salvo, the urn city tower suddenly became a pile of ash and slag...

Within a thousand miles, Chen Caoming saw a panic on the city wall, and it was obvious that the general under their command must have been killed on the tower of the urn city.

In the city of Suzhou, the prefect Yu Xianchao ran into the governor's yamen in a panic, and Yang Weizhi took the governor's yamen as the command center after learning that Chen Cao's army had entered Suzhou, and took the power of Suzhou as the governor.

"Panic?"

Yu Xianchao's trembling appearance seemed to be extremely frightened: "Lord Futai, big... Event... Not good... It's a big deal..."

Before Xianchao finished speaking, a soldier quickly ran into the lobby and spoke first: "Lord Yang, it's a disaster, General Li commanded the battle in the urn city tower and was killed by the rebel artillery..."

"What?"

Yang Weizhi stood up in an instant, Su Song's general Li Liang died, what should I do about the defense of Suzhou?

"Find someone to take his place and continue to command the battle, the rebels will soon attack the city..."

The soldier's face was embarrassed: "Back to my lord, the two guerrilla generals went out to lead the troops and no news came back, General Li and the remaining three divisions and six garrisons watched the enemy situation in the urn tower, but they were ...

They're all dead..."

"What?"

Yang Weizhi's head is big, and the leading army of the town soldiers is all wiped out, who will command the remaining thousands of town soldiers: "Who else?" ”

"There are more than a dozen left, and there are still a thousand."

"Pass this official order and order the thousand commanders to temporarily lead the town soldiers and guard the city defense."

"Yes..."

If Chen Cao knew that Ning Guoxing's round of artillery was crookedly killing General Su Song and other generals, he would have ordered the whole army to attack the city at that time.

It's just that although he has secret agents in Suzhou City, those secret agents don't dare to go out of the city at will under the martial law situation in Suzhou at this moment.

It is really a bit of child's play to let a thousand generals be ordered to command the remaining 3,000 or so town soldiers in danger.

"Grandpa, why don't you give the order to attack..."

Chen Cao was naturally reluctant to send someone to have any talks, thinking that when Chengzu raised his army, in Shandong in order to persuade Sheng Yong to surrender, but was scolded by the backhand, a giant statue of Emperor Taizu hung at the head of Dezhou City, which actually made Chengzu's artillery troops throw rat traps and were trapped on the front line outside Dezhou City for several months.

The city of Suzhou in front of you is not small, the distance from Taihu Lake is only ten miles, the water of Taihu Lake passes through the city, there is a water gate, the east gate is close to Yangcheng Lake, the water gate of Suzhou is more than Hangzhou, and the Wujiang River passes through the city again.

If you want to break Suzhou, it seems that there is only Ding'anmen in front of you to choose.

"Hmm..."

Chen Cao groaned, and then thought about it, if he couldn't take the entire Suzhou Mansion in a short time, the nearby Nanjing reinforcements could arrive within seven days at the earliest, and then he might have a battle with Xu Hongji, who came with the troops.

At this time, Chen Cao made up his mind: "Order, shell Suzhou City, cover the sappers to blow up the city gate." ”

Tang Yannian's spirits were lifted when he heard this, and he said to Song Che: "General Song, I'll go first..."

Song Che doesn't need to compete with Tang Yannian, Tang Yannian is the deputy chief of the Dingwu Army, and his meritorious service means that Song Che also has merit, and Song Che can also command Tang Yannian, so it is better to let Tang Yannian do things.

"Zhuyuan Loading..."

"Ignition..."

"Put..."

'Knock knock... Knock knock... Knock knock... Knock knock...'

'Knock knock... Knock knock... Knock knock... Knock knock...'

'Knock knock... Knock knock... Knock knock... Knock knock...'

Twenty Shenwu cannons ignited in the second round, and the fire bombs smashed towards Ding'anmen like rain scattering flowers, making the already destroyed Ding'anmen even more riddled with holes, and the casualties of the defenders in the city were not counted...

After the shelling began, Yang Weizhi, who was in the governor's yamen, felt the ground shake, and even the teacups on the coffee table shook with the shelling.

After a while, the herald rushed over in a panic: "Lord Yang, the rebels are attacking fiercely, and I am afraid that Ding'anmen will not be able to hold it." ”

"Boom..."

After a loud bang, Yang Weizhi clearly felt the shaking under his feet.

Officials at all levels in the hall shouted 'the ground moves', and then they scurried around, even Yang Weizhi was supported by his own soldiers to leave the hall, the earth moved was an earthquake, if the hall was shaken, they were estimated to be stoned to death in the hall.

A bloodied general ran into the governor's yamen in a panic: "My lord... My lord... Woe to you... Woe to you..."

"Governor Yang is here, tell me well, what's wrong?" The soldiers stopped in front of Yang Weizhi.

The general coughed twice: "The rebels don't know what means they used, they blew up the gate of Ding'anmen and the city wall on the left, our army was defeated by the rebel artillery, and all retreated to the inner city, and the urn city was lost..."

Yang Weizhi felt that the sky was spinning, and even the urn city, which had the largest defense, was lost, how could the inner city be defended? Moreover, the city wall of the inner city is not as high as the urn city, as long as the cloud ladder is on the frame, Suzhou City...

Suzhou Fucheng is two counties, three cities and three places co-governance, Wu County, Changzhou two counties are in the north and east respectively, surrounding Suzhou City, as long as the Fucheng falls, you can enter Wu County and Changzhou from the north gate and the east gate of the inner city.

Yang Weizhi, as the governor, has the responsibility to defend the land, and when he heard that the urn city had fallen, he fainted.

Thousands of miles of tubes, there is no longer a soldier on the city wall, the Dingwu army rushed into the city of Suzhou in turn, Chen Cao breathed a sigh of relief, and he still felt that he had made so many preparations for so many years, and the Dingwu army had accumulated experience in several battles, and it did not disappoint him.

"Shi Xiu, let's go, let's go into the city..."

After the city was broken, the defenders no longer had the will to fight, and the artillery bombardment had no will to resist, and the Dingwu army killed dozens of people one after another after entering the city, and the entire defenders had knelt on the ground and begged to surrender.

Chen Cao rode his horse across the street of Ding'anmen under the protection of his personal guards, and knelt full of soldiers on both sides, this feeling was really comfortable.

"Newspaper..."

The herald rushed to the horse: "The governor of Suzhou and other officials have withdrawn to the city of Wu County. ”

The city of Suzhou has been captured, Wu County and Changzhou County are like a dowry, and the cavalry of the inner city wall can climb up the horse standing on the war horse, which can be said to be without danger to defend.

"The second division was ordered to surround Wu County from the flank, and none of them could be let go, if those officials wanted to commit suicide or something, let them do it, and as for those who surrendered, they could all be accepted;

In addition, the 3rd Division went to clean up the defenders of Changzhou County, and the 1st Division scattered all parts of the city to arrest officials at all levels and wealthy gentry according to the list of secret agents. ”

"Yes..."

From the early morning to the evening when the huge city of Suzhou was invaded, all the departments of the Dingwu Army, with the cooperation of Jinyiwei, 'invited' all the corresponding personnel on the list to the original governor's yamen.

Zhao Xin walked into the lobby quickly: "Grandpa, Wu County is broken, Governor Yang Weizhi committed suicide, Governor Yu Xianchao was captured by our army, and the remaining arrested officials at all levels totaled 317 people, and those who surrendered were very heavy, only 27 refused to surrender. ”

"Did you scold me?"

Zhao Xin smiled: "Grandpa wants to hear it?" ”

"Tell me?"

Zhao Xin touched his head: "They scolded Grandpa, you are a traitor, and everyone will be punished..."

"Old-fashioned..."

Chen Cao didn't care what these pedantic scholars did, but he did care a little about the Fushe people in Suzhou.

What do you want, Huang Chunyao walked into the lobby quickly: "Grandpa, good news, the leader of the Restoration Society, Zhang Pu..."

"Lock him up first and dry him for three days..."

The order that followed was that all the county towns of Changzhou were cleared, and nearly 20,000 soldiers surrendered, and there were hundreds of wealthy gentry and wealthy families in Suzhou City, as well as officials from Suzhou.

The next day, the Longwu Army Tang Kainian came with news that Jiading was successfully captured, and more than 50 officials and schools under the guerrilla generals were captured, and more than 2,000 defenders were forced to land.

"Sent an order to Tang Kainian, along Taicang Prefecture to clear Zhenhaiwei and other places, and after taking Changshu, all coastal guards must also be cleared, and there must not be a single left;"

"In addition, all the inspection divisions and towns, townships and other managers around Taihu Lake must be escorted to Suzhou City, and all the units of the Third Division will be ordered to go north to assist in the defense of Hushu Pass.