Cutting over the end of the Ming Dynasty: a dog-leg knife at the beginning

Chapter 926 Hard fight
The news that Huang Taiji was coming to Tangshan to supervise the battle quickly spread, and the entire Guanning army was immediately full of energy, screaming, and their fighting spirit was extremely high.Tangshan City was the biggest obstacle they had encountered since they entered the customs. The Tianxiong Army who stood firm on Tangshan City became the demons of the Qing army. Everyone knew that if they captured Tangshan City before Huang Taiji arrived, they would be able to overwhelm them. Those full of people with eyes above the top will grab a big contribution!Since this is the case, what else is there to say?Let's fight to the death!

Zu Dashou also brought an army of 85, commanded by Zu Dacheng and Zu Zerun, to launch a fierce attack on the small west gate and south gate of Tangshan City.During the Northern Expedition, Zu Dashou seized sixteen 5000mm howitzers from the Tianxiong Army, and more than 85 rifled flintlock guns. Ten of the howitzers were handed over to Huang Taiji, and 600 rifled flintlock guns were handed over. , I kept 85 sticks for myself.Zu Dashou used these firearms to form a powerful firearms force, and now this force is all-in.Six [-]mm howitzers were pushed to a place only [-] meters away from Xiaoximen to shoot directly at the city gate and the battlements. The high-explosive grenade hit the city wall like a bolide, and stone chips were splashed like rain, shaking the ground. , the thick battlements shattered when touched, and turned into powder when rubbed, and the soldiers of the Tianxiong Army on the city walls were flying with flesh and blood.The gate of Tangshan City is as thick as a foot and a half. It is made of hard wood as hard as a rock. It is covered with a thick layer of copper leaves inside and outside. It is extremely heavy. A daunting obstacle cannot be knocked down by a car, cannot be smashed by a battering hammer, and cannot be burned by fire. If the army defending the city is more vigilant and tenacious, the attacking party will be prepared to compete with the people inside the city outside the city The ability to starve, see who will be starved first, it is a dream to break into the door in a short time.But when it comes to modern weapons like [-]mm howitzers, no matter how thick the city gate is, it won't work.Two howitzers fired a few shells at the city gate, causing copper leaves to scatter all over the ground. The city gate was blasted out with several holes, staggered, and after another bombardment, it finally fell to the ground.

Wu Sangui was stunned, unable to retract his tongue for a long time, and shouted: "My God, this artillery is so powerful, there is no city that can stop it!"

Zu Dashou said: "Yes, it's really amazing..." He shook his head with some emotion.The terrifying power of these artillery was also one of the important reasons that prompted him to fall to the Qing court, because he realized that with the appearance of these artillery, the Ming army really had the ability to smash the defense system of any city, including Shenyang!That is to say, as long as these artillery are popularized, the Ming army can start from Lushun, destroy the city all the way, kill Shenyang, and raze it to the ground, and the status of the Guanning army will also decline sharply... Landing in Lushun and Yingkou will lead to Shenyang, so foolishly continue to attack along the long and rugged route of Shanhaiguan-Jinzhou-Ningyuan?It is impossible for the Guan Ning army to build an independent kingdom based on the dangers of mountains and seas as before. The terrifying howitzers can smash through the Shanhaiguan Pass at any time, and turn the small independent kingdom they have been running for decades into ashes!
Rather than continue to delay like this, waiting until the Ming army is ready to recapture Shenyang, and settle the general accounts with Guan Ning's army, it is better to take advantage of the capital and take a risk. Even if it is infamy for thousands of years, it is worse than being dug out by the Ming court like killing a dog. The whole family was slaughtered!
After the city gate was blown down, these howitzers immediately moved to the east gate and south gate, wantonly destroying the city defense fortifications.Zu Zerun gave an order, and thousands of Guanning cavalry wielded their sabers and galloped towards the city gate with momentum like a rainbow.The city gate has been opened, they can drive straight in, and the next battle will be nothing more than a massacre.However, when they rushed closer, they realized that this was not the case at all: the city gate was tightly packed with sandbags and stone strips, let alone cavalry, it would be even more difficult for a mouse to get in!However, it is too late to say anything now. Once the thousands of cavalry charged, it would be difficult to stop. They could only look desperately at several black holed muzzles emerging from the battlements, spewing death-threatening flames at them... …

Boom boom boom boom boom!

The city wall shook again, but this time it was not because of the shelling, but because of the firing.Six steel muzzle-loading smoothbore guns fired at the same time, and steel balls the size of longan cores sprayed out at explosive speed, dense like a rainstorm, and filled the ground with smoke and dust. There were frighteningly red blood mist among the Guanning cavalry. The mournful hiss, the screams of people, the earth-shattering sound, dozens of people rolled into a ball, and many people were smashed to death!

Grapeshots, grapeshots again!
The Guan Ning cavalry hissed wildly: "Stop! Stop!"

Can you still stop?

Thousands of troops are rushing towards a small city gate, how can they stop! ?They could only yell wildly, and were slammed into the muzzle by the large troops swarming from behind. Then they watched in despair as the smoking cannons receded, and a few cannons protruded from the side crenels. Cannons of the same caliber, and then another bang, bang bang bang, and the outside of the city gate became a slaughterhouse.

Zu Zerun looked livid, waved the command flag, and the cavalry retreated with dead bodies all over the ground. Two thousand infantry armed with rifled flintlocks lined up and pressed them up to less than 100 meters. shoot.The dense rain of bullets hit the city wall with sparks, many gunners were shot in the head, and their helmets flew out with half of the broken sky cap, splashing lines of blood on the city wall.A row of gun muzzles also appeared on the city wall, and there was a series of bang bang bang bang, and Guan Ning's army fell down a lot.The same weapon exerts completely different powers in the hands of different people. In terms of shooting accuracy, the Guanning Army, which has only fired a few bullets, is far worse than the Tianxiong Army, which has fired hundreds of bullets. Too far!In normal times, Guan Ning's army should have retreated long ago after receiving such a severe blow, but now that they have the bonus of money rattails, they were stunned to withstand the huge casualties, and after loading the bullets, they raised their guns and fired again... The money rattail bonus is not a joke. Historically, Guan Ning cavalry was famous for bombing camp cavalry. Facing the Qing army and peasant army, bombing camps is simply commonplace. They ran away before seeing the shadow of the enemy. Everyone expressed calmness, but after shaving their hair, their combat power immediately increased a hundredfold. The Burmese... that's called a rainbow, invincible!If Tianqi and Chongzhen Quanxia know, they must be gratified. They have created such an invincible army with the power of Ming Dynasty!
It's a pity that this invincible army only started to function normally after surrendering to the Qing Dynasty...

Now, the two thousand Guan Ning army musketeers fired at the Tianxiong army with fierce volleys, suppressing the firepower of the Tianxiong army. Admiration also makes people wonder what to say.This distance makes Tianxiong's army very uncomfortable. They have too few troops. There is no way to suppress the firepower of Guan Ning's army when they line up. The shotguns can't be loaded and fired. Fucking like this, in the face of the suppression of enemy rifle fire, the gunner has no way to reload and fire. Naturally, the grenade can't work, and it can't be thrown that far.In the fierce confrontation, soldiers of the Tianxiong Army were shot in the head and fell down, and the casualties soared!While the Guan Ning army was shooting against the Tianxiong army, they also drove a large number of civilians forward to remove sandbags and stones in an attempt to clear the passage.Grenades were constantly thrown down on the city wall, and these civilians were also killed and injured everywhere, and the battle was so cruel that it made people crazy.

While the west gate was fighting fiercely, the south gate and north gate were also fighting bloody battles.Guan Ning's army used three howitzers to launch a long-term bombardment on the two city gates. They accepted the lesson of Ximen and did not bet all their treasures on the city gates. While bombarding the city gates, they also targeted the roots of the city wall. Boom.The more than 40 large-caliber front-loading smoothbore guns owned by Guan Ningjun also opened fire violently. High-explosive solid bullets hit the city wall like a torrential rain, peeling off the brick skin, shattering the rammed earth inside, and carving holes in the city wall. The hole comes.The Tianxiong Army fought back hard with 160mm and 120mm torpedo cannons, trying to suppress the artillery fire of the Guanning Army. However, this was an impossible task. They were not the main force. There were only four 160mm torpedo cannons and 120mm torpedo cannons. There are only eight cannons, but they have to face the siege of dozens of cannons, how can they resist?What's even worse is that the accuracy of the torpedo cannon is very poor, and people's understanding of ballistics these days is very limited, so they can only make rough shots. It is no problem to use it to fire at a large infantry square a few hundred meters away, but It is too difficult to use it for fixed-point fine removal. These artillerymen are crying, but it still doesn't help.

In the afternoon of the fierce battle, the city walls of the south and north gates had already been shaken and dilapidated, and four lightning cannons of the Tianxiong Army were destroyed, which made things worse.To make matters worse, the artillery of the Qing army continued to be thrown into the shelling. Although the thunderbolt artillery of the Tianxiong Army also destroyed many artillery artillery of the Qing army, the artillery fire of the Qing army became more and more fierce!On the side of the west gate, most of the sandbags and stones blocking the city gate have been cleared away, and a large number of Guanning Army infantry set up ladders to attach them, and planted the battle flag on the top of the city several times.However, the tenacity of the Tianxiong Army's resistance was beyond the expectations of the Guan Ning Army. The battle flag that was planted on the top of the city was quickly thrown down from the city wall together with the flag bearer by the Tianxiong Army.The fierce soldiers of the Guanning Army formed a commando team and rushed up the city wall in heavy armor. Soldiers of the Tianxiong Army rushed up with bayonets and fought fiercely with them, and drove them down again. The Guan Ning army found nothing.However, everyone knows that the Tianxiong Army can't last long, Guan Ningjun knows this, and the Tianxiong Army knows it too!

Another attack by the Guanning Army was repelled, and the twilight gradually fell. The Tianxiong Army was exhausted, but they could not rest yet, and they had to hurry up to replenish ammunition and repair fortifications.Zhou Yuji dragged his exhausted body around to patrol, instructing the civilians to send the ammunition up and carry the wounded down.The battle today was so fierce that the city walls were breached in many places. At the most critical moment, even he, the supreme commander, had to draw out his long sword and throw himself into hand-to-hand combat, killing more than ten Guanning soldiers. As a pawn, he was also injured in many places.Now his whole body is sore and his legs are weak. He just wants to throw off his armor and sit down to rest. He doesn't care about anything, but he can't, the situation is critical, and he has to keep working hard, and he has to find a way to relax. Smile, because the general is the courage of a soldier. If he is timid, the morale of the whole army will be lowered, and this battle will be even more difficult to fight.

When he came to the west gate where the battle was most fierce, he saw that the corpses under the city wall had been piled up six or seven layers, and the corpses above the city wall were also strewn all over the place. There are thick patches of maroon-purple brown spots, which make people feel horrified when they look at them.He asked Commander Ximen, "How about it, can you still stand it?"

The man from Shanxi is still full of energy: "No problem! Those Qing dogs bark fiercely, their marksmanship is terrible, nine out of ten bullets hit the sky, this kind of scum, as long as they have enough ammunition, they can't even think about getting in! "

Zhou Yuji said: "There is a lot of ammunition, but the soldiers..." shook his head, "I'm almost out of soldiers to supply you."

The commander was also silent.They have been fighting for several days. Although there are not many casualties every day, the total number of soldiers in Tangshan City is only so small. One is killed and one is injured, but the enemy is fighting more and more. Until now, Zhou Yuji has at hand to mobilize There are really not many soldiers left.

Zhou Yuji looked at the Guan Ning army who was reorganizing not far away, with a worried look on his face: "I'm afraid they will launch an attack overnight and won't give us a chance to breathe..."

The commander asked in a low voice: "General, will reinforcements come to support us?"

"Reinforcements?" Zhou Yuji looked a little sad and smiled bitterly: "The entire North Zhili's capable troops have been exhausted a long time ago. Where are the reinforcements?"

The commander asked: "Where is the Heluo new army? Will they come to support us?"

Many soldiers pricked up their ears and met their expectant eyes. Zhou Yuji's throat was blocked, and he said against his will: "Yes, as long as we persist long enough, they will definitely come! They are flying soldiers, and they will be able to do it in a month." Flying troops rushing from Nanyang to Jinzhou!"

The soldiers let out low cheers and obviously sped up their movements.

Zhou Yuji sighed in his heart.He didn't have any hope for the reinforcements, he only hoped that Zhou Ruhu could rescue the queen and prince and escape to Nanyang safely. In this case, even if Beijing was lost, Ming would be able to fight against the Manchus by the Yellow River like the Southern and Northern Dynasties. Northern Expedition, recover the Central Plains!
But, can his son really complete such a difficult task?

(End of this chapter)