The room goes through the late Ming Dynasty, and the back door leads to North America at the beginni

Zhu Guobao is a little short-sighted and the distance is far, so he can't see clearly.

Then he asked Cui Zhen, "Is it really the Hongyi Cannon?"

Cui Zhen frowned, squinted his eyes, and said, "It seems to be about one foot long. It's probably the Hongyi cannon."

No wonder the two were still suspicious after seeing the rebel army artillery.

First, the rebel army cannons were silver-gray in color, which was very different from the iron-made Hongyi cannons.

Secondly, there are not many Hongyi cannons in Henan, and only a few are installed in the two giant cities of Kaifeng and Luoyang, but they are rarely used.

Most of the Ming Dynasty's Hongyi cannons were on Shanhaiguan and the cities outside the customs, then on the capital city, and again on the coasts of Fujian and Guangdong.

Therefore, some officials and generals who have been serving in the mainland have only heard of the Hongyi cannon by name and have never actually seen it.

While Zhu Guobao and Cui Zhen were in shock and doubt, five army artillery pieces of the rebel army had been placed at the selected location.

Immediately, the gunner began to test the cannon based on the direction of the Ming army's cannon given by Liu Sheng.

Yesterday afternoon, the four general cannons at the top of the city fired several rounds. Liu Sheng did not allow the army cannons to show up to fight back because he was worried that the Ming army would make targeted arrangements at night.

But he had memorized the locations of the four general cannons so that he could have the army cannons knock them out one by one today.

Boom boom...

The army artillery that had been prepared for a long time fired quickly.

Still five stone bullets.

Because stone bullets are the cheapest.

After the Battle of Wuyang County, the army's artillery bombardment skills improved slightly.

Only two of these five stone bullets hit the wall, and the remaining three hit the top of the city near the general cannon.

Because the Ming army did not expect the rebels to have siege artillery, and they did not expect to start firing them so quickly. When the artillery shells fell, many people were still standing in a relatively concentrated manner.

Especially near the general cannon, more than a dozen people often fight together.

Unexpectedly, three people were killed and seven or eight injured by this round of test artillery.

Amidst the miserable howls of the wounded, other Ming troops could not help but panic and their morale dropped.

Zhu Guobao and Cui Zhen were also shocked by the rebels' test firing.

But we also knew from this that what the rebels launched were five Hongyi cannons, which were of quite large caliber.

Because it is not that easy for Hongyi artillery to hit the top of the city two miles away.

After coming back to his senses, Cui Zhen said: "Tongjian, since the rebel army has Hongyi cannons and is close to the moat, there should not be too many soldiers at the top of the city. I would like to request that some of the battalion soldiers be transferred to the horse road first (you can push carts or walk on horseback to the city wall). sloping stairs) and the city is on standby."

Of course, it is impossible for the big city of Ruyang to cover all the defenses with just a few thousand battalions.

There are also rural soldiers under the camp soldiers.

The so-called rural soldiers were recruited and trained by the prefects, prefectures, and counties. They also received food and salary, but it was much less than the soldiers recruited from the camp, but the deductions were very small.

The rural warriors are trained by the sages, gentry, and powerful landlords in the countryside. They are private or small collective armed forces. They are basically only responsible for defending their hometowns and maintaining public order in the countryside.

Xiangyong basically had no food and salary, and even when he went on an expedition, he was only responsible for food.

But if the battle is won, there may be a reward.

As for robbing people, it's not just in one's hometown. At this time, most armies will do it and regard it as an additional benefit of being a soldier.

There were 3,600 rural soldiers in Ruyang, 3,000 of whom were nominally recruited and led by Fu Ru for the prefect, but in fact the training and command of the rural soldiers were all handled by Zhu Guobao.

Zhu Guobao knew something about military affairs, but Fu Ruwei didn't like leading troops in war. Secondly, Zhu Guobao's general judgment is relatively strong.

Nowadays, there are one thousand of these rural soldiers on the city walls, one thousand in the city guarding the government's arsenal, granaries, government offices and other important facilities, and there are still a thousand who are guarding the city to rest at night.

The other five hundred township soldiers were recruited by Wen Shiyi in the name of Ruyang County Government. In addition to protecting several important facilities of the county government, their main responsibility now is to assist the police and government officials in maintaining public security in the city.

As a capital city, there are nearly 100,000 people in Ruyang City. The city is large and there are many streets. Maintaining public security requires a lot of manpower.

I heard that the government office has been planning to divide Runan County into two counties, following the example of Beijing and some big cities in the south, so as to facilitate governance.

Unfortunately, due to various reasons, this matter has always been just a plan and has not been implemented.

After the original recruitment of camp general Wang Yingtai defeated Tianmu Mountain, the number of soldiers increased to more than 4,500, but there were also more than 1,000 people who guarded the city during the night.

There are only more than 2,000 soldiers on the city wall. On average, there are more than 600 people on each city wall, and several hundred people serve as reserves.

In fact, because there were no enemy troops in the west or south, there were only two hundred rural soldiers and more than a hundred battalion soldiers guarding each city wall.

The rest of the officers and soldiers were on the east and north walls.

Cui Zhen proposed to let some of the battalion soldiers retreat, undoubtedly because he wanted the rural soldiers to act as the main force to withstand the artillery shells.

As the actual leader of the rural soldiers, Zhu Guobao should have been sympathetic to the rural soldiers.

But he also knew that camp soldiers had higher combat effectiveness and were more valuable than rural soldiers, so they really shouldn't be on top of the city.

It's a trivial matter to get killed by artillery shells from time to time. The key is that morale is easy to drop.

As the main force defending the city, if the morale of the battalion soldiers is too low, it will not be so easy to defend the city.

He nodded and agreed to Cui Zhen's proposal.

Not long after Cui Zhen asked his servants to deliver the order, most of the battalion soldiers were preparing to retreat, and the second round of artillery shells from the rebels came.

Boom boom...

"How come the thief Hongyi's cannon fires faster than the general's cannon?!"

Hearing the sound of artillery, Zhu Guobao and Cui Zhen both hurriedly hid in the city gate tower and were surprised by the speed of the rebel artillery fire.

Then, a series of explosions were heard.

But it was the rebels who fired explosive bullets this round.

Although the power is not much greater than live ammunition, it is shockingly powerful and has a greater impact on the morale of the officers and soldiers.

What was even more unfortunate was that one of the explosive shells ignited the powder barrel next to a large general cannon, and immediately blew up more than a dozen battalion soldiers, including the gunner, who were hiding nearby!

Zhu Guobao hidden in the city gate tower was shaken and fell to the ground.

"It's a bomb!"

Zhu Guobao's face turned pale.

Cui Zhen's face looked so good that he couldn't see where he was.

When he came out of the city gate tower, he saw soldiers and village soldiers wailing on this section of the city wall. He didn't know how many people had been killed or injured.

"Hurry up! The soldiers are all coming down to the city wall! The country soldiers are putting all the gunpowder barrels in a safe place and sealing them up!"

Considering the speed of the rebels' shelling, Cui Zhen didn't bother to count the casualties, and hurriedly shouted for the officers and soldiers to execute the order.

Five or six minutes later, the rebels' third round of artillery shells came.

It's still a blooming bomb.

Some of the rural soldiers and auxiliary soldiers who were recruited to guard the city were killed and wounded.

Not many people actually died on the spot, but many were injured.

The injured people did not receive timely treatment, and the morale of the officers and soldiers dropped even faster as they wailed.

Zhu Guobao came out to take a look and quickly scolded other rural soldiers for carrying the wounded down for treatment.

I was thinking in my heart that if the bandit army continued to bombard like this, they would probably organize the people in the city to help defend the city tomorrow.