Yang Guozhu observed the front of the army with the help of a clairvoyant mirror, only to see that in front of him was a continuous trumpet, drum, and flag, and the soldiers of the army were surging forward with the undulation of the terrain, surging forward wave by wave, like a stormy wave.

At the same time, the firepower of the Qing army also began to exert force, and Yang Guozhu had to be convinced, the counterattack of the Qing army in this battle was really very different from before.

In the past, Yang Guozhu also led his troops to fight against the Qing army, especially in the Battle of Julu. In the past, the long-range firepower of the Qing army was basically bows and arrows, sometimes mixed with some firearms. As for artillery, it only appeared at critical moments, and the fire was by no means as fierce as it is now.

At this time, Yang Guozhu saw that the soldiers of Xuanfu Town were constantly bombarded by the artillery of the Qing army during the march, and saw one shell after another, whizzing past the soldiers and taking away the lives of one after another Xuanfu Town soldiers.

Even Yang Guozhu saw with his own eyes in the clairvoyant mirror that a solid chariot, covered with a thick quilt and leather, was bombarded into powder by artillery. Some of the bird-strapped soldiers behind the chariots, as well as the people of the carts, were unlucky, covered with sharp wooden thorns, and lay on the ground wailing in agony.

The tried and tested chariot in Yang Guozhu's impression seems to be unable to stop the artillery of the Qing army at this moment, and Yang Guozhu heard that the return of not collecting at night is still a lot of birds in the Qing army.

Looking at the tragic situation of the officers and men in the army, and listening to the continuous roar of the Qing army's artillery, the soldiers in the army were a little uneasy. Yang Guozhu shouted loudly to the heralds around him, and ordered everyone to ride their horses to the military formation, and do their best to stabilize the morale of the army.

Yang Guozhu knew that it was impossible for the artillery of the Qing army to bombard indefinitely, and when it reached a certain time, it would definitely have to stop to dissipate heat, so the artillery bombardment of the Qing army at this time was destined to be only temporary.

So Yang Guozhu endured his heart and ordered the soldiers of Xuanfu Town to speed up the speed, and at the same time, the soldiers of all departments should also be ready to attack the defense line of the Qing army.

At this time, the artillery of the Qing army continued to roar, and in the military formation of Xuanfu Town, there were constantly Qing artillery shells falling into it, constantly taking away the lives of the Ming soldiers, and many soldiers had their hands and feet broken, screaming and falling to the ground wailing.

And the passionate marching drum music in the Ming army formation is still continuous, and it is getting louder and louder, accompanied by the sound of drum music, the continuous military formation of Xuanfu Town continues to advance.

The huge sound of drums on the battlefield also reduced the fear in the hearts of the soldiers of Xuanfu Town a lot, and then Yang Guozhu was also under the protection of the Chinese army's personal guards, riding a horse to follow the soldiers in the military formation, and continued to advance with the music.

At this time, Yang Guozhu was furious in his heart, and he only hoped that the soldiers of the army could approach the trenches of the Qing army as soon as possible, and then he could use all kinds of firearms in the army to shoot the Qing army Tartars in the defense line fiercely, and avenge the soldiers who died on the way to the army!

In the artillery array of the Qing army in the Loess Ridge, the huge rumbling sound was endless, the artillery array was covered with pungent smoke, and many gunners of the Qing army continued to skillfully brush the chamber and load, and then carry out artillery bombardment!

I saw that the gunners of the Qing army were well-trained, especially many Portuguese gunners, who were more capable than the gunners of various units of the Ming army, not only shooting faster, but also shooting more accurately.

Moreover, the artillery of the Qing army was also improved by those traitor gunners, and all used a four-wheel grinding disc gun carriage to place heavy artillery on the gun carriage. This gun carriage can rotate flexibly from side to side, and when it is necessary to aim at the target, only a few sturdy gunners are needed to insert a thick wooden rod into the wooden hole of the gun body, and with a little force, the gun body can be rotated and the angle adjusted, and then it can be bombarded at the target.

This kind of artillery carriage is the originality of the Qing army's gunners, it can be seen that the Qing army's gunners at this time are all excellent people, but it is a pity that Sun Yuanhua spent a lot of manpower and material resources to create the elite gunners, at this time all the Manchu Tartars were cheaper!

As heavy shells continued to fire, they shot towards the advancing Ming army formation, fell into the Ming army's formation, and constantly caused casualties to the Ming army's officers and soldiers. In particular, when the Ming army was more than two miles away from the main ridge and not far from the first Qing army's defense line in the Loess Ridge, the six-pounder, eight-pounder, and ten-pounder guns that the Qing army had arranged in Zhongling also opened fire one after another, and for a time the firepower of the Qing army increased dramatically, and the advancing Xuanfu town army formation suffered a huge blow.

For the Qing army stationed in the Loess Ridge, at this time, the soldiers of Xuanfu Town were only more than a mile away from them, and they were just within the effective range of artillery.

In the middle of the Ming army, Hong Chengchou looked at the fierce bombardment of the Qing artillery, his face was blue and his teeth were clenched, and he kept sending people to the artillery array to ask if he could launch a counterattack against the artillery deployed by the Qing army on the Loess Ridge.

However, Hong Chengchou got a reply that at this time, the Ming army's artillery array was three miles away from the Qing army's artillery array in Loess Ridge, and the Ming army's artillery bombarded from the bottom up, and it could not reach the Qing army's artillery array at all.

"Slaves are treacherous, and they are truly hateful!"

Hong Chengchou cursed angrily, at this time there was no longer the elegance of the past, and he looked ahead with his brows tightly locked, just looking forward to the two armies of Xuanfu Town and Shanxi Town to persevere.

Liu Yan also looked at the front intently, and he was also very impressed by the performance of the soldiers of Xuanfu Town and Shanxi Town at this time.

These two armies are not like the new army in Qinglai Town, which has undergone rigorous training, is equipped with luxurious equipment, has sufficient money and food supply, and has established a new army with lofty ideals similar to the drill codes and military regulations of modern armies.

However, at this time, the two armies of Xuanfu Town and Shanxi Town were covered by the fierce fire of the Qing army, and under the condition of suffering huge casualties, they continued to advance without collapsing, and they were already called elite, and their performance was far more outstanding than in history, even Liu Yan had to admire.

At this time, the Qing artillery of the middle ridge and the main ridge of the Loess Ridge took turns to shell, and when one side cooled down, the other side opened fire, so that the artillery fire of the Qing army was continuous and there was almost no interruption.

Subsequently, some Hongyi small cannons of the first line of defense of the Qing army also began to fire, but these small cannons were closer, and the Ming artillery array could also hit them.

Seeing this, Hong Chengchou immediately ordered angrily and ordered the Ming artillery array to launch a counterattack, first sweeping away the small artillery of the Qing army on the first line of defense at the foot of the mountain.

So the artillery array of the Ming army roared again, countless solid shells, poisonous smoke bombs, ash shells, earth-shattering thunder and other shells, almost without money, just greeted the Qing army and artillery in the first line of defense, and beat them crying father and mother, embarrassed.

Hearing that their artillery was once again powerful, although it did not weaken the artillery fire of the Qing army, it still made the morale of the soldiers in Xuanfu Town and Shanxi Town in advance rise a lot, and even many soldiers roared excitedly, shouting and marching forward.

However, under the artillery bombardment of the Qing army in the middle ridge and the main ridge in turn, Yang Guozhu's troops and Shanxi's general Li Fuming's troops, who were forced in formation, still suffered huge casualties. A large number of mountain-attacking equipment and four car battalions that followed the position of the Chinese army in the second town were also in a mess under the bombardment of the Qing army's artillery, and a large number of mountain-attacking equipment were destroyed on the way. m.

Yang Guozhu rode his horse in the Chinese army, and when he looked around, he saw that soldiers were constantly dying under the artillery fire of the Qing army, and he couldn't help but feel heartache. But fortunately, there are a large number of mountain-attacking equipment around Yang Guozhu, which are like defense, and Yang Guozhu has fired a few shells, which is a great luck.

However, Yang Guozhu was safe and sound all the way, but the soldiers under his command were not so lucky, the artillery shells of the Qing army continued to shoot into the military formation of Xuanfu Town, huge cannonballs whistling and flying, often accompanied by a group of shells, each wave of shells is hundreds of sizes, these shells fell into the military formation, it was a mess of smashing, and there were constantly soldiers with broken hands and feet, flesh and blood flying.

In particular, some artillery shells were specially shelled at the cavalry in the main barracks, and the whistling cannonballs fell down, even the cavalry soldiers who had experienced a hundred battles could not stop the power of the cannonballs. If you are hit by a shell, you will be killed by a broken bone. Even the battle-hardened war horses were swept away by cannonballs, and they kept neighing and wailing, jumping around.

At this time, it was already more than half of the journey, but Yang Guozhu's face was very ugly, and his heart was even more resentful.

In addition, the soldiers of the car battalion of the military headquarters in Xuanfu Town were basically drawn from various towns by Hong Chengchou, and those soldiers and the people who pushed and pulled the carts, pointed heads, nest cars, mantle carts, trenches and bridges and other mountain-attacking equipment, were all panicked and confused when facing the Qing artillery.

Seeing this, Yang Guozhu was anxious, the army was approaching the first trench of the slaves, and most of his army formations were also under the attack of several layers of Qing artillery on the mountain, and the difficulty of attacking the Loess Ridge was far more difficult than imagined.

When Yang Guozhu was secretly thinking in his heart, he suddenly heard another sharp swan sound on the mountain, and in an instant, the cannon roared, and another wave of heavy cannonballs whistled.

With a loud bang, many heavy solid shells smashed heavily on the ground, and then bounced off and rampaged through the military formation in Xuanfu Town.

Rumble!

The chariot of a chariot battalion was blown away by a cannonball, and the people who were pushing the cart suddenly screamed, and then a large piece of it fell, and the chariot was scattered and fell to the ground, and even the Franc cannon on the cart fell far away, turning into an unusable piece of scrap metal.

Rumble!

A nest cart was also hit by a Qing artillery shell and scattered, and the people who pushed the cart also fell down, and the remaining surviving people all ran away screaming.

Rumble!

A large iron ball of more than ten catties flew in a roar, just smashing into a few people pushing a longboard car. The longboard cart was filled with heavy burlap bags and baskets, which were supposed to carry dirt for the moat to be filled.

The people looked at the shells, their faces were already like ashes, and they let out a desperate scream.

They wanted to run, but their steps were so weak that they couldn't move at all, so they just stayed where they were, waiting for death.

In an instant, the cannonball was already fired into the dirt bag on the car, and with a loud bang, the body shook violently.

However, to the delight of the people, although the mud rags were flying, the shells were embedded in the bag and did not move, but several people were safe and sound!

Some people died, but not completely......