Ming Taizi's Total War

Chapter 283
The commander-in-chief of the former Wuwei army is a veteran, hereditary from thousands of households, who used red cannons to help Zhang Yong and Shi Kefa knock down the Tao Ding army in Kaifeng city before.

Zhang Peilun wanted to reuse soldiers who were good at using firearms, so he directly let him change from an artillery commander commanding 500 people to an army commander commanding [-] people equipped with a large number of firearms.

After the equipment and soldiers were in place, he immediately led his army to Shanhaiguan. Fortunately, almost all the south of the Great Wall was pacified by Zhu Cilang, and there was no danger on the way.

Otherwise, when his thousands of new recruits go out of the city, once they encounter the enemy's field troops, they will be almost indistinguishable from those for nothing.

Although the power of firearms is astonishing, it is almost impossible to resist except for large defensive tools such as shield vehicles. As for the Hongyi cannon, there is almost no one in the world who can resist it.

But no matter how powerful it is, it must be hit accurately, otherwise it will become a guard of honor for firing cannons at weddings and ceremonies in later generations.

The distance from the capital to Shanhaiguan is very short. In one morning, Tao Dingjun, a former Wuwei army, came to a place two miles south of Shanhaiguan to set up camp.

But they were not alone. They were accompanied by more than 5000 soldiers from Kingo's vanguard.

This was specially arranged by Zhu Cilang because he was afraid of accidents in the newly formed firearms unit. If the firearms unit could not achieve good results in the face of Shanhaiguan, then let the cold weapon unit attack.

Although the more than 5000 people in the Jinwu Guard were ordinary people a few months ago, they followed Zhu Cihong from Yangzhou to Tongguan, and then all the way to the capital. They fought more than a dozen battles, and those who survived can be called for veterans.

Even if they alone attacked Shanhaiguan, it would not be a problem. After all, there were only 300 real Tartars in it, most of whom were Han Chinese and Korean puppet troops.

It's just that if the infantry forces a siege, there will definitely be heavy casualties. After all, there are no craftsmen in Kingo's vanguard camp who are specialized in manufacturing siege equipment.

At most, some ladders, rushing carts, and shield carts can be built. Using such equipment to attack the city is slightly stronger than the Qing army and the peasant army in terms of siege technology.

After all, during the protracted war, both the Qing army and the peasant army paid their tuition with blood and learned a lot of advanced military technology. The red barbarian cannon that Mite Qing likes to use now was brought by the Ming army who surrendered at the beginning.

Wanting to maintain the absolute advantage over the peasant army and the Qing army, Zhu Cihong thought about it, and the only way was to use firearms on a large scale.

When Ming Taizu and Ming Chengzu easily drove the Yuan people back to the grassland, didn't they rely on firearms? Thousands of firearms were fired, and even the powerful assault cavalry could not withstand them.

Of course, if the firearms of the Ming army exploded first, it would be the Ming army that couldn't hold it back. This is also the reason why the combat effectiveness of the army in the late Ming Dynasty became increasingly low.

Originally, the soldiers were negligent in training and weak in fighting will, and they could barely win by shooting with firearms, but when the firearms accidentally exploded, they could only be defeated like a mountain.

After setting up camp, Tao Dingjun was not in a hurry to command the army to attack the city, but let the gunners and musketeers go to the city first to fire a few shots and fire a few cannons for training.

Anyway, Zhu Cihong is using all the power of the capital to support this firearms unit, and they have plenty of supplies.

In the evening, when it was almost dusk, the defenders on the city wall of Shanhaiguan suddenly discovered that the Ming army outside the city had brought a lot of strange things, along with many carriages.

"Look, what is that?" It was a North Korean soldier who first noticed the change of the Ming army outside the city.

"It's a cannon, report it to the general." His companion's eyes were better, and he found some large black iron lumps. He was keen and immediately realized that it was the cannon of the Ming army.

During Wanli's aid to Korea, the Ming army relied on cannons to defeat the Japanese army many times, which left a deep impression on the Koreans, so these Korean soldiers still remember it now.

After a while, Fuman was called to the city wall by his subordinates. After realizing that the artillery outside the city was aiming at them and ready to shoot at any time, he did not hesitate and immediately ordered the soldiers to take shelter under the city wall.

"Can the artillery on our city wall hit them?" Fuman asked a Chinese gunner.

The Ming army outside the city would fire at any time, how could he be trapped in the city and be beaten passively.

"Yes, it is possible, but the artillery is in the north and cannot be transported." The gunner's answer made Fuman cut off the hope of counterattack.

"In this case, it can only depend on God's will." Fuman sighed.

But in the next second, the sound of thunderous artillery fire interrupted him. Those who didn't know thought that the Ming army didn't even give the Qing army a chance to leave their last words.

I saw Tao Dingjun commanding twelve Hongyi cannons and thirty large-caliber Frang machine cannons violently bombarding the inner city wall of Shanhaiguan.

As soon as the artillery finished shooting, there was a gunner holding a pole to clean up the gunpowder residue in the barrel, and another person poured water on the cannon body with a bucket to prevent the cannon from blowing up due to overheating.

Then one more man loaded, one compacted, one fired, and the gun fired a second deadly shot.

For a quarter of an hour, the artillery fire of the Ming army never stopped, and Fu Manzhen, who was squatting at the base of the city wall, was almost deaf.

"Damn it, how many artillery do these Han people have?" Fuman complained.

A trace of despair gradually emerged in his heart. Before that, he didn't expect that the Ming army would have so many artillery pieces. He thought that he could do a real battle with real swords and guns, killing a large number of Ming troops.

In this way, I can still earn enough money when I am dying, but now it can be seen that the fierce artillery fire of the Ming army has not stopped at all.

If it was like this for a few days, Fuman felt that he would not even have a whole body.

Just when Fuman was thinking about whether he should launch a decisive charge before he died, which would be better than staying in the city and waiting to die, suddenly there was a burst of flames in the city.

A soldier who was familiar with the topography of the city saw the flames and stood up madly and said, "The gunpowder magazine exploded, and the surrounding buildings were all set on fire. We are finished."

"Hey, why did you disturb my army's morale? Come here and kill him." Seeing that the man who spoke was a Han Chinese, Fu Man asked the sergeant to kill him on the spot without even thinking about it.

It's a pity that before the sergeant stepped forward to make a move, the city wall behind Fuman collapsed, crushing him and dozens of soldiers to death.

It turns out that the city wall of Shanhaiguan was built to prevent the outside but not the inside. Neither the designer nor the user thought that there would be an army attacking the city from the south, so the city wall on the south was built thin and short without even laying a foundation. strict.

In addition, it has never been used, and the generals guarding this place can't think of maintenance and reinforcement, so today, after about a quarter of an hour of shelling, some of the city walls in poor condition collapsed.

(End of this chapter)