Nanming Engineer

Chapter 359 Dorgon's Personal Conquest

Running up the broken wall, the scene in front of him made the battle-hardened Jiang Yan suddenly feel a nauseating feeling in his heart. He had to stop and closed his eyes to suppress it before he dared to open them again. Open your eyes.

On the city wall in front of me, I saw a large fork about three feet wide that was blasted open by the Qing army's artillery. The temporary wall made of wood and stone last night was reduced to ruins by large iron bullets. The tall city wall Only the rammed earth layer with a height of less than two feet at the base of the wall was left. A large number of broken bricks were scattered everywhere, and some corpses were mixed in. It is not known whether they were crushed to death by the collapsed wall or bombed to death by artillery fire.

South Gate garrison and commander Liu Zhenwei was standing on the cross section, commanding three three-furran machine cannons temporarily drawn from other places to pour iron bullets wildly outside the city. The speed is very fast, as long as the cooling measures can keep up, it is comparable to the continuous firing guns of this era.

At Liu Zhenwei's feet, there are layers of corpses for him and the cannon. I don't know how many corpses there are. They are all soldiers of the Jiang family defending the city. He carried it down and placed it properly for future burial, but threw it directly into the pile of corpses as stones to block the section.

The pile of corpses was already as high as the city wall. A large number of people were carrying stones and using the pile of corpses as a layer of rammed earth to build a wall behind. After each wall was built, they pushed another one forward until it was replaced by a stone wall. Pile of corpses and rebuild this section of the wall.

The blood flowing out of the corpse pile flowed down the slope of the corpse pile, like a stream, gurgling smoothly, and the bright red blood was so conspicuous that it dyed this section of the wall red, which was very different from the gray brick walls elsewhere. From a distance, it seems that this section of the city wall is originally red and covered with cinnabar.

The smell of corpses mixed with the smell of gunpowder poured straight into Jiang Yu's nostrils. He sniffled, trying to get used to the stench, and then struggled to lift his legs and climbed to the top of the sloped pile of corpses.

Liu Zhenwei's eyes were red, and he was wearing an iron armor. The armor swallowing beast on his right shoulder had disappeared, exposing the bloody skin. After being hit, he shouted hoarsely and ordered the gunners to fire the cannons quickly, while holding an iron tire bow with both hands, he shot arrows out of the city one after another.

The muscles of his right arm were swollen and red due to the continuous pulling of the string, and the blue blood vessels protruded from the surface like earthworms, as if they would explode if he exerted more force.Jiang Guan climbed up and pulled him to a lower position. As soon as he got down, a bunch of feathered arrows shot from outside the city, shooting impartially at the position where Liu Zhenwei was standing just now.

Liu Zhenwei was panting, his whole body was exhausted, and he immediately collapsed on the pile of corpses, his butt just sitting on a head. He didn't care about the panic, and said to Jiang Yu in a low voice: "Junmen, the Qing army's artillery fire is too fast, here If we don’t rebuild it quickly, I’m afraid I won’t be able to continue!”

Jiang Yan looked outside the city. The dark Qing army was like a mighty current. They were braving the ferocious artillery and rockets from the top of the city and rushing towards this direction regardless of life and death. The moat outside the city had been filled up a few days ago. The forest-like ladders and the wall-like shield carts formed a moving castle, covering the large number of Qing troops hiding behind who were gradually approaching. At this time, the nearest Qing troops were less than fifty feet away from the city wall.

Because a gap in the city wall has been opened, our own people began to attack, and the red-clothed cannons of the Qing army’s artillery battalion stopped firing. If you continue to fight, it will be a matter of time before the chamber explodes, and you must stop for a while.

The Qing army archers hiding behind the shield cart continued to draw their bows and fire, exerting pressure on the defenders at the top of the city, reducing the danger during the fatal distance close to the city wall. However, the Jiang Jiajun at the top of the city seized the opportunity and fired. Iron bullets were fired at the shield carts lined up in a row. The iron bullets hit the shield carts like thunder. One hit was a bloody path, jumping and leaping on the ground, taking away the lives of countless people.

However, there were too many Qing troops. Although the artillery fire at the top of the city was fierce, it was limited by the rate of fire. advancing.

"Don't be afraid, we still have a sharp weapon at the back." Jiang Yu squatted down again, avoiding a mace arrow shot from above his head. After the arrow shot from his head, it happened to land on a Fang Minzhuang's head, and penetrated the man.

Minzhuang groaned, a bloody arrow shot up from his head, and he fell to the ground. He suddenly died. The people around him numbly but quickly stopped what they were doing, picked up his body, and threw it into the In the pile of corpses in front, the person who was alive a second ago immediately turned into an integral part of the city wall.

Liu Zhenwei's mind was shaken by the roar of the red cannon, and he looked at Jiang Yu in a daze.

With a ferocious face, Jiang Yu turned his head and shouted at his own soldiers: "Are the hundred tigers running together and Ten Thousand Enemies brought up yet?"

"Here we come!" Before the soldiers could answer, there was a loud response from a distance in the city, and a group of soldiers swarmed from the street, pulling a long line of carts.

On the cart were wooden boxes, big and small, and the soldiers pulled them closer, calling on the villagers to quickly carry the boxes to the city.

Sergeant Jiang Yanling pulled up a large box, kicked off the cover in front of the box, revealing a dense array of arrows inside, and a lead wire was exposed at the back of the box.

"It's a hundred tigers running together! It's really a hundred tigers running together!" Liu Zhenwei exclaimed, with a look of surprise on his face: "Haven't all the hundred tigers in the city have been sent to the capital? Why are there still some left?"

Jiang Yu's face trembled, and he said with a sinister smile: "Such sharp weapons are invincible. The Tartars are trying to cut my wings and take away my magic weapon. How can I let him succeed? There are a large number of such weapons in the secret place of the city. , a swarm of bees, a hundred tigers rushing together, ten thousand enemies, etc., are enough for a Tartar to drink a pot!"

After saying that, he picked up the red-hot iron brazing rod handed over by his own soldiers, put it on the lead wire at the back of the wooden box, lit it, and then stepped back quickly.

The fuse was ignited at one point, and once it was ignited, the spark disappeared into the wooden box at the end of the fuse. After a while, like a fire erupting, a flame as big as a beam burst out from behind the wooden box, reaching several feet away, and At the same time, rockets the size of an ordinary person's forearm shot out in succession from the front of the wooden box. The arrowheads were as big as half a palm, and there was a tail fin at the back. A burst of sparks shot out from the cylinder at the tail, as fast as a shell fired. rush out.

There were as many as a hundred of these rockets, and they were all shot out in one breath, turning into a meteor, rushing towards the oncoming Qing army like lightning.

The Qing army hiding behind the shield chariot peeped forward from the gaps in the wooden planks, only to feel a blur in front of them, as if countless thunderbolts flashed on the opposite city, and they arrived in front of them in the blink of an eye, and before they had time to react, they heard "cracking ", the hand pushing the shield car seemed to feel that a hundred bulls had hit the shield car, and the shield car was stopped suddenly, and even hit the shield car backwards.

The huge arrow broke through the thick wooden board covered with cowhide, strung the candied gourds of the Qing army on the back, and then flew backwards, fell to the ground, and no one survived.

The Qing army at the back saw this scene clearly. When the rocket was set off, it was like thunder, like lightning, and it streaked across the sky like thunder. After Jiang Yu released it, dozens of hundreds of tigers rushed to ignite it. There were also some smaller swarms mixed in. Thousands of rockets poured down from the top of Datong City, like a waterfall of flames, covering the city wall and the land of the shield workshop, like a spreading sea of ​​fire, covering the dark impact of the Qing army. formation.

In the rear of the Qing army, Azig, Nikan and others stared at this scene in astonishment, their faces pale, and no one made a sound.

After a long time, the rockets were exhausted, and the dust and bursting black smoke slowly dissipated, revealing a devastated battlefield.

The three rows of shield chariots of the Qing army were all scattered on the ground crookedly, and none of them could continue to move forward. The shield chariots in the front row were either directly dismantled by huge iron arrows, or were pierced like hedgehogs full of arrows. , the Qing army behind the shield chariot, those who were close were stabbed to death by the iron arrows that broke through the wooden boards, and those who were far away were lying on the ground, looking around in horror, not daring to get up like a mole, lest the dense flying The terrible rain of arrows from locusts came again.

"Ming Jin! Retreat!" Azige gritted his teeth with an expressionless face and yelled bitterly: "Withdraw the soldiers and attack the city again tomorrow after the red cannons have rested!"

Nikan and the others looked at the smoky Datong City with livid faces, and in their wolf-like eyes, there was flame-like hatred. They knew that the defenders of Datong City still had such powerful firearms. It seemed that this city, It is not so easy to capture.

……

"Bastard!" Dorgon tore the memorial in his hand into pieces, jumped up from the soft couch in rage, and threw the shredded paper all over the sky.

Seeing him getting angry, dozens of people in the Hall of Martial Arts knelt down one after another, and no one dared to make a sound.

Minister of the Ministry of War, Ming Andali, who was given a seat by Dorgon and accompanied him, now knelt on the ground like his butt was burned, and kept shouting: "The regent, calm down, the regent, calm down!"

"Quiet your anger! How can this king calm your anger!?" Dorgon roared, excitedly kicking over a small table next to the soft couch, a bowl of bird's nest on the table flew into the air, splashing the bird's nest juice It is everywhere: "Azig was in Shanxi at the beginning, and he is not to blame for the rebellion in Shanxi! Nikan and Boluo have also been there for three months, and they brought a little more soldiers than when the king captured Beijing, but The chaos in Shanxi has not been resolved yet, what use are these trash slaves for!?"

"It's all cut, it's all cut! The king sent someone else!" Dorgon continued to growl.

Ming Andali wiped his face. Some of the juice from the bowl of bird's nest just splashed on his face. Then he kowtowed and said with a white face: "Prince Regent, please calm down. Prince Regent, please think carefully! All princes and princes are all capable generals in a hundred battles. Stand up now." His achievements are outstanding, and there are many reasons why he has not been able to resolve the Shanxi rebellion. Jiang Yu has been changing his mind for a long time, and he is a local tycoon who manages Shanxi in a monolithic way. Datong is also an important nine-border town in the Ming Dynasty, with dangerous terrain and city defense. It is so strong that when the tiles and the Tatar cavalry knocked on the edge, they did not shake the city at all. Therefore, we should not rush this matter, but should take it slow."

Dorgon got angry, and his anger subsided a little. He calmed down and felt a little sloppy, so he sat back and said with a serious face, "Get up and talk, you don't need to kneel."

Ming Andali secretly wiped his cold sweat. After thanking him, he stood up, but did not dare to sit down. He stood and said, "The Regent can give the Prince of England some more time to wait and see what happens next."

"More time, I want to give it too, it's not that I don't want to give it, it's that the world doesn't give it." Dorgon sighed in vain, and said in a muffled voice: "Shanxi is located on the side of Jingpu, and its status is very important. Beijing is on fire. Now the world is in chaos, and there are rebellions everywhere. A few days ago, there were riots in Shandong and Henan. The banners were all in response to the Jiang bandits in Shanxi. Lighting fires everywhere, the Ming army in Shaanxi is about to reach Xi'an, if things go on like this, the mountains and rivers that Taizu and Emperor Taizong laid down for us will be thrown into my hands, so how can I give them time?"

Ming Andali was speechless, and felt that he couldn't share his worries for the regent, so he was ashamed, so he lowered his head and remained silent.

Dorgon took a deep breath, looked at the trembling court lady who came to clean up the broken bowl of juice, and said with a sense of loss: "This king also knows that it is not Azige and others who do not work hard. It is indeed the situation in Shanxi. Difficult, but protracted delays will lead to chaos, if it cannot be resolved as soon as possible, there will be endless troubles.”

Ming Andali thought for a while, then raised his head cautiously and said: "Why don't you send another general, all the elites from the capital, to Shanxi, to solve Jiang Chao with thunder, and use Anjingpu?"

Dorgon shook his head: "General? Who can be worthy of a general? In addition to the kings who are already in Shanxi, Jierhalang and Lekedhun are in Huguang, He Luohui and Tan Tai are in Jiangxi, and Hong Chengchou, a scholar of the inner academy, is in charge. In Nanjing, even the three kings of the Han army who were appointed not long ago are guarding each side to prevent the Ming court from counterattacking, and I have no one to use."

He rested his forehead with one hand, closed his eyes and lowered his head, muttering to himself: "If brother Wang is in good health, and he is in charge, he will definitely be able to catch him. Unfortunately, he is seriously ill and can't even get out of bed. lead troops?"

Ming Andali opened his mouth. He wanted to recommend some people. After thinking about it, he felt that these people were not even comparable to Azig. How could they get into the eyes of Dorgon? Since he was a civil servant, he dared not recommend himself. Became a muffled gourd again.

The hall fell into silence, and the people sitting, standing, and kneeling did not make a sound, only the sound of "hissing and swishing" from the maids' brooms and rags sweeping the ground could be heard slightly.

After a long time, Dorgon suddenly raised his head, his stern face was as indifferent as a rock, he clenched his fist with one hand, lightly slapped his knee, and said in a deep voice, "My king is here! Put down Jiang Chao!"

(End of this chapter)