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

Chapter 822 Annan Raiders 2
The fierce artillery fire of more than 20 85mm howitzers and twelve 160mm long-barreled mortars kicked off the attack on Thang Long City. The entire Thang Long City trembled under the roar of the God of War.

Wang Rui and Qin Mai have always been relatively restrained in the use of these new artillery pieces. Firstly, the shells are rare, and each round is transported from the north, so the high cost can be imagined; secondly, these artillery pieces are still secret. Every time a weapon is used, there is a risk of leaking secrets, so try not to use it as much as possible. Occasionally, it is used to fire a few shots to attack the morale of the opponent, and then rush up to fight hand-to-hand.But now, they don't need to restrain themselves. Thousands of rounds of shells accumulated for more than half a year are smashed like money, and the shells hit the Annan army's fortifications like a hailstorm. The city is full of flames, and the city wall is exploding. It collapsed with a loud noise, and the camp turned into a sea of ​​flames. The Annan army guarding the city was shattered, shouting and running wildly.

The rocket launcher also made a terrible whistling sound, a group of forty rocket shells shot up one wave after another in the eruption of smoke and flames, pulling out a dazzling arc and plunged into the city of Thang Long, followed by a burst of thunderstorms. With violent and dense terrifying roars, houses were razed to the ground, trees were either uprooted, or the crowns were ignited and turned into a large torch.For the Annan army, these rocket launchers are even more terrifying than howitzers. No matter how powerful the howitzer shells are, they can only hit a single point, but this thing is a large piece. Even if it is not killed on the spot, it will be burned by the fire caused by the explosion. Into ashes!The bamboo and wood houses in Shenglong City were instantly ignited, turning into a sea of ​​flames. I don't know how many soldiers and civilians of Shenglong City were trapped in the fire, screaming and wailing in despair.

Amid the howling of a herd of elephants, four 120mm cannons were pulled to a distance of only 500 meters from the small west gate of Thang Long City, the muzzles were adjusted to level, and they fired directly at the city wall.Thang Long City is the capital of Annan. It has been operated for hundreds of years. The city walls are tall and thick. It is not easy to destroy it with 85mm howitzers. You must use 120mm cannons.This thing is deadly and heavy, and it is not easy to move it. Fortunately, the Annan people are generous enough to send Wang Rui back and forth in several major defeats. As for the thirty elephants, with these elephants, it is necessary to move Those four cannons are a piece of cake.According to the information obtained by Wang Rui, the section of the city wall at Xiaoximen is the weakest in the entire defense system, but the facts have proved that the information he obtained is quite accurate. The four 120mm cannons only fired 400 shells, and the section was [-] meters long. Mi's city wall was blown out with multiple gaps, and the cracks expanded rapidly...

Yang Menglong used the binoculars to see clearly, and curled his lips: "It's a tofu project again!"

Wang Rui also shook his head.When he was sweeping across Huguang, he often came across this kind of bean curd project, more than once he beat officers and soldiers to death. He didn't expect that the Annan people's capital also had this problem... so why are you being polite to them?

Of course, Annan's army would not sit still. Their artillery was fighting back. Dozens of musket-mounted smoothbore guns bought from the Portuguese at a high price opened fire at the same time. The firepower was dense and spectacular.However, the front-loading smoothbore gun is a whole generation behind the rear-loading rifle gun. No matter in terms of range, power or accuracy, the difference is sky-shattering. However, most of the shells are flying all over the sky, and there is no hair on the opponent. hurt.Annan's gunner was so anxious that tears came out, and he desperately increased the charge in order to hit a little farther. As a result, bombing accidents happened frequently, and they suffered heavy casualties.

The gate of the water village in Shenglong City was wide open, and hundreds of warships galloped out of it. The hulls of these warships were covered with mud, and the shooting holes were covered with three layers of tanned cowhide. Twenty archers or musketeers shot desperately towards the two banks. Feathered arrows were like wind and lead bullets rained.Some large warships lifted the cowhide, exposing the ferocious bed crossbow. Amidst the vibration of the machine, iron spears with a length of 1.5 meters roared out, hitting the wooden fence with sawdust flying, and there were constantly unlucky barbarians The soldiers were hit by the high-speed flying iron spears, and they were beaten to fly more than ten meters away, or two or three were strung together in a string.The Annan navy is doing its best to contain the main force of the barbarian army. They are extremely brave and skilled. During the seven-month siege, Wang Rui and Qin Mai were still unable to deal a powerful blow to this navy.It seems to be the same this time. The sharp arrows shot from the camps on both sides of the Red River almost covered the sky. Every warship was shrouded in the rain of arrows. Even the oars were filled with sharp arrows, but none of them could shoot. Wearing the hull and thick tanned cowhide, this huge fleet can only be allowed to spit feather arrows and iron spears crazily across the river like a fire dragon, harvesting life.

On land, the west gate of Shenglong City was opened wide, and thousands of Annan cavalry rushed out like a whirlwind, followed by a thousand crossbowmen and more than [-] sword-shieldmen in iron armor, heading straight for the artillery position.The Qiang and Tibetan cavalry immediately went up to meet them, and the rifled flintlock guns with shortened barrels sounded like popping beans. Pretty dead.A round of precise rifled flintlock shots wiped out at least two hundred Annan cavalrymen. After firing one round, these bloodthirsty plateau cavalrymen drew out Tibetan knives that were as sharp as mud or raised spears, slashing and stabbing, Started a tragic fight with the Annan cavalry.Their strength is far less than that of Annan's cavalry, but their combat effectiveness is far superior to that of Annan's cavalry. In addition, the round of flintlock shooting just now hit Annan's cavalry hard. beat up.

The cavalry was entangled, and Annan's infantry continued to advance, completely as if they were dying.

With a wave of Qin Mailing's flag, hundreds of Qiang slingers came out, and the slings swung like a whirlwind. With the whizzing sound, lead bullets flew like raindrops towards the Annan infantry swarming towards the artillery positions.The small bucklers equipped by the Annan infantry obviously could not provide them with sufficient protection. Many people were hit by lead bullets flying at high speed and fell down screaming.The lead bullets these catapults were equipped with weighed nearly half a catty, and if they were hit within a hundred meters, they would be crippled if they did not die. Even if they were wearing iron armor, they would be useless. This kind of blunt attack cannot be blocked by armor. Facing these slingers, the only thing the Annan infantry could do was to pray that the lead bullets would not hit themselves.

The Annan crossbowmen roared and raised their strong crossbows and fired at these hateful slingers, the crossbow arrows were like the wind.However, the effect was not satisfactory. Those catapults were not described as casual, and they were wearing steel helmets and iron armor. The crossbows of the Annan people were not very strong. It was not easy to shoot through their armor from a hundred meters away. These slingers are effective in killing, at least they have to reach 60 meters.However, the buckshot thrown by a slinger at a distance of 60 meters is as accurate as having eyes. Shooting at them at a distance of 2000 meters is courting death!The Annan people also knew that their crossbowmen could not defeat these damned slingers. Taking advantage of a round of furious shots from the crossbowmen to slightly suppress the firepower of the slingers, thousands of infantry roared and rushed up, and those hit by lead bullets Those who were hit, and those who were not hit continued to rush forward, and those slingers would be trampled to death if they were stepped on!The slingers lobbed another round of buckshot, then stepped back, exposing eight muzzle-loading smoothbore guns.Before the Annan people could react, they heard a burst of gunfire, and the grape bullets merged into a pair of scorching iron brooms to sweep over. The Annan people's charging queue suddenly exploded into groups of terrible blood mist. With the sound of a cannon, dozens or even hundreds of Annan soldiers fell to the ground and were even torn to pieces.Then, more than [-] smeared Yao wolf soldiers rushed up, howling, and the two sides fought together.

The small west gate was also opened, and a group of frightened bulls rushed out of it and crashed into the artillery position. Thousands of Annan soldiers swarmed out. It seemed that in order to kill the artillery position, the Annan people really went all out. up.

Three teams of musketeers came out, raised their rifled flintlock guns and fired at the charging bull in turn. Amidst the gunshots like exploding beans, bloody flowers exploded from the mad bull's body, and he fell to the ground with a howl. .These musketeers were precise in their marksmanship, extremely calm, and cooperated with each other tacitly. Even though there were so many crazed bulls, not one of them could rush in front of them.

Annan soldiers rushed over the dead cow carcasses on the ground, and what greeted them was a cluster of six-meter long guns.The spearmen and sword and shield soldiers formed an impenetrable defense line, and the musketeers and slingers opened fire from all directions. No matter how hard Annan's army attacked, it was still difficult to get past the thunder pool.

On the other side of the Red River, under Wang Rui's command, hundreds of people worked together and overturned three large boats filled with sandbags. A simple dam collapsed in an instant, and the long-stored river roared and poured out. Next, the water level of the Red River has skyrocketed!The Annan navy, who was fighting fiercely in the river, screamed that something was wrong, and they were in a mess. Before they could react, the barbarian army threw water mines the size of basketballs, filled with granules of gunpowder and oil, into the river. The mines floated on the surface of the river. Surrounded by the river, it slammed into the Annan navy in a mighty manner. There were explosions on the river one after another, and the flames rushed. The Annan warship hit by the mine was either blown to pieces or ignited. Burning Man, wailing and rolling into the foaming torrent... This navy, which made the barbarian army gnash their teeth with hatred, turned into a real fire dragon this time. Among them, soon, even the water village was in flames.

……

The battle was extremely fierce. In order to win the Thang Long City as a farewell gift before Yang Menglong returned to China, Wang Rui and Qin Mai went all out, using howitzers, cannons, mortars, and rocket launchers, fiercely fighting day and night. Boom, the 10,000+ army attacked day and night until their eyes were red.In the desperate situation, Annan's army also exploded with exceptionally strong combat power, dispatching elites out of the city one after another, desperately charging into the artillery positions and trying to destroy those cannons.The reinforcements who had been looking for fighters near Thang Long City also realized that the last moment had come, and came to help desperately. The two armies centered on Thang Long City, surrounded and supported layer by layer. The plains were covered, and the river was stained red with blood.Annan's army went out of the city to attack the artillery positions countless times, and they were all beaten back. The barbarian army raised the battle flag several times to the top of the dragon city, but was quickly thrown down from the city wall together with the people and the flag. The battle was cruel. , horrifying.

On the fourth day of the brutal fighting, Qin Mai led a commando team to rush in from the water village that had been razed to the ground by a fire. After an extremely bloody fight, they captured the area across the Red River connecting the two districts of Thang Long City. The Red River Bridge cut Thang Long City into two pieces.Almost at the same time, after receiving more than 200 rounds of 120mm cannon shells, the Xiaoximen city wall finally could no longer hold up. It collapsed amid the rumbling and shaking of the earth. Dust rose more than ten meters high, and a huge gap of 400 meters was exposed to the barbarians. In front of the army.Under the early morning sunshine, the barbarian army roared into the city, and there was a sea of ​​blood in Shenglong City.

Immediately afterwards, the section of the south gate city wall couldn't hold it anymore. First, the foundation was hollowed out, then it was burned by fire, howitzers slammed, and finally fell down. The barbarian army rushed like a tsunami, and all resistance was like this in front of them. of weakness and powerlessness.The Annan people knew what this meant, and they resisted desperately. Even the women climbed onto the roof, picked up bricks and threw bricks at the barbarian soldiers who entered the city.The barbarian soldiers were not polite, and set fire to the houses one by one. Those who grabbed the gunpowder kegs simply threw them into barrels of gunpowder and blew up the houses. Wherever they went, there was not even a live chicken left.

On the seventh day of the war, Thang Long City has become a dead city with blood soaking its ankles. The last king of the Chen Dynasty after Annan looked at the capital city full of fireworks and bones, and lamented, saying the last word to his dynasty. Saying goodbye to him, he personally ignited the firewood piled up in the palace, and disappeared into the blazing fire together with his dynasty.

After Annan, the Chen Dynasty perished.

(End of this chapter)