Chapter 296: Attacking Zhenjiang

On September 11 of the second year of Chongzhen, Chen Cao personally led an army of 120,000 to arrive at the city of Danyang.

After the army left the city and camped four miles, Ti rode around to find out the news of Danyang.

"The number of rebels is at least around 100,000, and this is likely to be all of Chen Wei's belongings."

At Xu Chengqing's meeting of Chinese army generals, everyone's faces were a little solemn, and the death order issued by Nanjing, Xu Chengqing would die in Zhenjiang even if he died.

Although this is nothing to Xu Chengqing, after all, as the general of the Wei State Mansion, he has stepped up to the peak of the military position of the chief soldier step by step with the identity of the Duke of Wei, and it is natural to do things for the Xu family, but the 100,000 Beijing battalion troops under his command can only fight 40,000, of which 30,000 are concentrated in Danyang City, although these 100,000 horses sound bluffing, but if it really starts, he himself does not dare to guarantee that those people will not suddenly escape.

After all, the matter of Wu Jincheng is vivid, although the soldiers in Chen Cao's hands are few, but they are all firearms troops, and their combat effectiveness is naturally much more powerful than the long knives and spears under his command, not to mention that the musket is an inexperienced soldier, who only needs to train for a month to carry the gun to the battlefield, and only needs to pull the trigger to kill people from a distance.

And like those town guard troops, a soldier becomes a seasoned veteran, without one or two battlefield experience and the luck of surviving, it will definitely not form a strong combat force.

"All the firearms shipped from Beijing have arrived in Nanjing, and Grandpa Guo has already replenished most of us, I heard that this time not only did the red-haired people buy a lot, but the missions of the Taixi countries in Beijing have received the purchase and sale, we are the first batch to take over the Hongyi cannon today, and there are many more ships one after another."

Xu Chengqing's close staff officer Li Shouye frowned: "The Hongyi cannon imitated by Wang Gongchang's gunner is not as good as the Hongyi fan, and the last general is worried about exploding after the artillery battle." ”

The deputy general Xu Shiji commanded 50,000 troops from Dantu, and after receiving Chen Cao's 100,000 troops and came directly to Danyang, Xu Chengqing simply gave up the plan to hold on both sides and handed over the defense of Dantu to Zhao Tianlin, the commander of Caojiang Sailor.

"It depends on luck whether to blow up or not, after the reinforcement of Danyang City, when there is the capital to fight with Chen Wei, the order will go down, and all the firearms will be mobilized to Dongcheng, in addition, the firearms battalion must be prepared to go out of the city for field battles, how is the preparation of the cavalry troops?"

Li Shouye clenched his fists: "The last general mobilized all the cavalry of the whole army, a total of 8,000 cavalry, all concentrated at the north gate, as long as the rebels went out to bombard the city, they could go out of the city to fight with them." ”

The Nanjing side studied for a long time, and finally thought that after the opponent launched an artillery bombardment, it would send cavalry to break through the artillery position at any cost, and then achieve the expected combat value.

"No matter how powerful the rebel artillery is, it will also take time to reload, as long as our cavalry is fast enough, after the first round of shelling, they can destroy their artillery before they can kill their artillery in the gap of their loading."

Although Xu Chengqing was powerful under Chen Cao's command later, he still made a plan to exchange one for one: "As for the newly equipped muskets, if the rebels start to attack the city, each unit will enter the trench position outside the city according to the predetermined plan and talk to them for a while. ”

"Everyone, the safety of Zhenjiang is all in our hands, Your Majesty said, as long as you repel Chen Rebellious's army, and wait for Nanjing to put down the rebellion of King Fu, you will be crowned with the position of earl."

Since Jiajing, the title of the dynasty has been stingy, from Jiajing to Wanli, except for a few relatives, only Li Chengliang has a Ning Yuanbo, and the rest is at most a shadow of the Jinyi Guard.

"It's a life exchange..."

Xu Chengqing finally added.

War horses have become a simple means of transportation for generals to travel or carry materials here in Chen Cao, looking at tens of thousands of war horses, mules and horses, mules and other livestock, Chen Cao can't help but sigh the importance of automobile transportation.

Although he had already put forward this idea in the class of mechanical engineering and simply drew a drawing, the core engine was a big problem, although John Tang and others could refine gasoline from crude oil, but there were too many impurities in this simple distilled gasoline, even if it could be burned, the damage to the life of the engine was considerable.

After returning to Nanjing, we must take the development of engines as a key subject. ’

Thinking in his heart, Song Che walked into the big tent: "It's back, reliable news, the deputy general Xu Shiji led an army of 50,000 from Dantu to the south, and Dantu's city defense was handed over to Zhao Tianlin, and the Caojiang Naval Division built twenty warships in the shipyard of Longjiang, which were equipped with Taixi's artillery. ”

Zhao Xin also walked into the big tent, and then announced: "There is news from the secret agents in Beijing, the emperor ordered the missions of various countries in Beijing, especially the Francophone and the Dutch, to buy a large number of Hongyi cannons and turtledoves foot guns, and after the resumption of work in the Jingshi Wang Gong factory, the priority is to imitate the Hongyi cannons, and the news from Nanjing, Xu Chengqing is the first batch of people to take over these firearms." ”

Chen Cao knocked on the desk: "That is to say, Xu Chengqing has a lot of Hongyi artillery in his hand," remembering that he was almost hit last time, Chen Cao shook his head: "Hongyi artillery can hit three miles at most, but I believe that they definitely don't have enough long-range artillery in their hands, they should all be about two miles..."

"The sentry ahead reported that there are many trenches under Danyang City..."

"They want to fight us in Danyang?"

Chen Cao frowned, and then looked at the sand table: "Although the turtledove foot gun is powerful, they don't know that we are already equipped with rifles, and the era of flintlock pistols is coming to an end. ”

Chen Cao's idea of designing the M1 Kangxing rifle is based on Xiao Yueben's 38 rifle, so the standard shooting accuracy of the Kangxing rifle is 460 meters, and the farthest can hit 700 meters, but in order to avoid the embarrassment of immortality after penetration, the bullet of the Kangxing rifle uses a 7.62 mm rifle bullet, and once it hits within 460 meters, there is no possibility of survival.

Although there is data in later generations that the 38 rifle hit the target at 1,200 meters, the target did not die, and even now, the recoil of the Kangxing rifle is only a little smaller than that of the turtledove, which especially tests the shoulder bearing of the soldiers.

"Seven hundred meters away to shoot in a cluster, the defenders on Danyang City are live targets."

Song Che also tried the Kang Xing rifle, but he couldn't love it, so he even asked for one to try it out in person: "Two hundred steps... The human-shaped target two hundred meters away is a black spot, and if you want to hit it, you have to choose a sharpshooter in the army. ”

Once the flintlock pistol is completely replaced by the Kangxing rifle, then the previous death tactics can be completely abandoned, and under the cluster fire of powerful firepower, unless the opponent is a cavalry deathless impact, but this effect will not reach the proportion of the effort at all.

"At present, the Kangxing rifle is only equipped with the garrison division, and it will be reequipped in order, and it will be three months before it can be equipped with the first division of the Dingwu Army."

The group talked about the current situation for a while, and after a while, a sentry came back again: "Grandpa, the Dantu reinforcements are less than thirty miles away from Danyang City. ”

"Herald..."

Chen Cao stood up, and all the generals got up together: "Tang Kainian led the Longwu Army to the predetermined location immediately, preparing to encircle the point and send reinforcements; In addition, Ning Guoxing's department immediately pushed the Shenwu cannon carried in front of the battle, built momentum for Tang Kainian, covered the actions of the Longwu army, and let's shell Danyang City first. ”

.

"Lord General, the rebel artillery has appeared."

Xu Chengqing led a group of generals to the head of Danyang City, within a thousand miles of mirrors, dozens of artillery pieces were being pushed to the front of the sandbag array by one door, Xu Chengqing could clearly see that the artillery was opening the gun box to load shells at the muzzle.

"Quick, Hongyi artillery prepare, let's shoot against the rebels, Li Shouye, your cavalry should appear."

Li Shouye listened to the order and went to the north of the city, and he prepared to lead 8,000 cavalry to break through Chen Cao's artillery position according to the plan.

"Zhuyuan Loading..."

"Ignition..."

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

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

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

Not only the Shenwu artillery position, but also the Hongyi artillery of the Northern Army on the head of the city also ignited and opened fire, the firing range of both sides was within two miles, and after the fierce shells were fired, there was a huge explosion in the city wall, the city head, and the city.

And the Shenwu artillery position was also hit by the Hongyi cannon, and to Chen Cao's surprise, Xu Chengqing actually used the flower bomb at the beginning.

The cost of the firearms craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty to make a flower bomb was five taels of silver, and Chen Cao went through the gunpowder reform, after the industrial reform, the cost of a fire bomb was only three taels of silver, plus Songjiang, which is now very rich, the initial shelling prepared a thousand rounds of fire bombs, as long as the accuracy is enough, it is a small problem to blow up Danyang City.

However, the Hongyi artillery at the head of Danyang City also brought a lot of casualties to the Shenwu artillery position, the shelling was only five rounds, and the Shenwu artillery was blown up as many as ten, and the explosion also triggered the ammunition box placed next to the artillery, and more than 200 gunners were killed, which made Chen Cao feel distressed.

However, Ci is not in charge of the army, although artillery training is the most troublesome, but now in order to capture Zhenjiang, even if it is dead and wounded, it is willing to give up.

After more than ten rounds of firing in the whole battle, a large amount of dust suddenly rushed up in the north of the city, and Chen Cao rode on his war horse to get the news that there were thousands of cavalry from the north of the city rushing straight to the Shenwu artillery array.

"The headquarters of the 1st Division immediately formed a formation in front of the Shenwu artillery array, preparing to attack the cavalry, in order to prevent them from taking advantage of the situation to attack the main formation, after this round, let all the artillery in the artillery array retreat."

Even if you want to exchange one for one, it must be fair, now that the opponent has sent cavalry, Chen Cao will naturally not be stupid to let all the artillery in the artillery array die, not to mention that after firing ten cannons, the Shenwu cannon must cool the barrel, even if the Shenwu cannon is abandoned on the position.

Sure enough, Li Shouye's target was really the artillery array, thousands of cavalry slipped away towards the artillery array, the first division was in front of the artillery array one mile away, and it was going forward, so there was danger, after a volley, although hundreds of cavalry fell off their horses, but the first division was also killed and wounded by the cavalry's crossbows and throwing guns, and more than 300 people fell to the ground.