Under Baoji City, the plum blossom piles, deer barricades, trenches, and boulders within 300 steps from the moat have all been filled with sandbags, and the auxiliary soldiers of the loyal battalion directly threw the sandbags on the obstacles set up by the Qing army, piled up into a dirt slope, and slowly approached the direction of the moat. The pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info because of the construction of the slope, protected the follow-up troops behind.

This dirt slope was built by the auxiliary soldiers of the loyal battalion for more than half a month, and the closer to the city wall, the greater the loss of the auxiliary soldiers of the loyal battalion. At night, it was the auxiliary construction of the Qiongzhou army, although the target could not be seen clearly at night, but the artillery fire of the Qing army still caused certain losses to the auxiliary soldiers of the Qiongzhou army.

The Ming army paid the price of losing more than 5,000 people before and after advancing the soil slope to within 300 steps of the moat.

"It's been more than half a month! Our fortifications are within three hundred paces and we can mount the cannons! With the help of our artillery, the siege will be much easier. Chen Shuigen said to Li Laiheng.

The artillery of the Ming army in Sichuan was mainly six-pounder howitzers, three-pounder cannons and twelve-pounder mortars, and these guns had a relatively short range, but howitzers and mortars had the advantage of being able to attack from behind concealed objects with a more curved trajectory and shell the enemy on the opposite side.

The auxiliaries and the people were busy behind the earthen slope, setting up mortar positions and howitzer positions, digging a trench around the position, piling up a ring of earthen cities, and putting up wooden fences to prevent the Qing army from going out of the city to attack the artillery positions.

After a whole day and a night of busyness, the Qiongzhou Army in central Sichuan finally set up an artillery position and set up a six-pounder howitzer, a twelve-pounder mortar, and an eight-pounder mortar behind the mound.

As soon as it was getting light, Chen Shuigen ordered a test firing to open fire.

Several artillery sounds sounded on the artillery positions of the Ming army, two six-pounder howitzers, two twelve-pounder mortars and three eight-pounder mortars made cannon sounds, and the shells were pulled out in the air and smashed into the head of Baoji City. However, this round of firing was only a test fire, and the hit rate of the shells was not high, seven shells were fired, only one howitzer shell smashed on the city wall, and the rest of the shells all missed.

Hearing the sound of shelling, the Qing soldiers in the city were terrified.

"General, Minggou has opened fire!" Several Qing soldiers let out exclamations.

One of his own soldiers shouted: "General, get out of the city!" Minggou has just completed the test firing, and will soon open artillery to bombard the city! Danger up there! ”

Wang Jinbao angrily reprimanded: "Bastard! I'm not afraid! What are you afraid of! Minggou is just a few small cannons, so he is afraid of you like this? ”

"But it's dangerous on the walls." The soldier tried to persuade him.

Wang Jinbao laughed: "These cannons of the Ming army are all small cannons, and the city wall of Baoji is strong, just a few small cannons, if you want to blast the city wall, I'm afraid you won't want to blast it open in a year!" Even if they bombarded the city gates, what could they do? We have fortresses on both sides of the gates, and inside the gates there are urns! Can the dog get in? ”

On the artillery position of the Ming army, after the gunners conducted a round of test firing, they began to load gunpowder and shells, adjusted the Zhuyuan, and carried out a second round of test firing. In the second round of test firing, the same number of artillery shots were fired as in the first round, but this time the hit rate was a little higher, in addition to one howitzer shell, two mortar shells also hit the target, and the hit rate has increased to nearly half of the level.

The gunners were busy with nervousness, cleaning the chambers, loading gunpowder and shells, and completing the preparations for the third round of firing. In the third round of shelling, two howitzer shells and three mortar shells hit the target, which means that the test firing has been completed and can be officially reloaded according to this charge.

Chen Shuigen gave an order: "Open the cannon!" ”

An earth-shattering roar sounded on the artillery position of the Ming army, and the white smoke rose from behind the mound, and twenty-four howitzer shells and one hundred and twenty mortar shells rose into the air, pulling out arcs of different heights in the air, and the shells smashed down on the head of Baoji City.

Whether it is a six-pounder howitzer shell or a twelve-pounder mortar shell, in fact, the destructive power is insufficient, in fact, it cannot destroy the solid Baoji city head, but it can destroy the female wall and battlements, destroy the city defense weapons at the head of the city, and seriously weaken the defense ability of the city wall.

The cannons rumbled, the cannonballs rained down, and they continued to fall on the city wall, and the battlements of the female wall were broken and splashed, and the cannonballs hit the wolf's teeth and yaksha at the head of the city, and these weapons defending the city were immediately shattered; The cannonballs hit the lime bottles and canisters of kerosene, blazing the city, and the shells happened to hit a general's cannon, sending it into the air.

"Keep loading solid shells!" Chen Shuigen ordered.

The destructive power of the women's wall and the battlements is still stronger than solid shells, first tear the defense of the city wall into the gap, and then replace it with flowering shells.

After about a minute, the second round of concentrated artillery bombardment began, white smoke continued to rise from behind the mound, one after another shells rose into the air, smashed on the top of the city, cracks appeared in the battlements of the female wall that were hit, and the broken stones flew sideways like shrapnel, and the Qing soldiers who had not had time to escape from the city immediately flew flesh and blood. The cannonball hit the fortress, and although it could not penetrate it, it smashed the fortress into potholes, and the female wall on top of the fortress was also smashed in a large area.

At the head of the city, the artillery of the Qing army also fired back, and rows of shells smashed into the mound. However, the shells smashed on the mound, only splashing a burst of dirt, the thick mound of earth covered the shells, the outside was blown down, and there were several thick layers inside, and the shells of the Qing army could not threaten the artillery positions of the Ming army at all.

"Minggou's cannons are placed behind the mound, they are all cannons in the sky, they can hit us, but our cannons can't hit them!" Wang Jinbao racked his brains and thought about it, but he couldn't think of a countermeasure.

Seeing that the Qing army at the head of the city was suppressed and fled down the city to avoid the shelling, Li Laiheng gave an order: "Let the auxiliary soldiers go out and continue to advance!" Fill in the obstacles outside the moat as soon as possible! ”

The auxiliaries of the loyal battalion pushed the shield cart and slowly advanced in the direction of the city wall.

The Qing army at the head of the city concentrated artillery fire and aimed at the shield cart that advanced up, and the Qing gunners lit the artillery, and the muzzle of the cannon continued to spew fire, and the shells hit the shield cart formation. The distance was already close, and the hit rate of the Qing army's artillery had increased a lot, and from time to time a shield car was hit by the powerful Hongyi cannon, and the shield car that was hit by the bullet was immediately torn apart. Some shield carts were hit by the Qing army's small artillery, which only caused casualties to the auxiliary soldiers behind, and the shield carts were not completely destroyed.

The auxiliary soldiers of the loyal battalion braved the fierce artillery fire of the Qing army, pushed the shield cart step by step, and reached the end of the dirt slope, and the auxiliary soldiers removed the sack from the cart and threw it down. More and more sandbags were thrown under the dirt slope, and some people pushed the wheelbarrow with a wooden plank in front of them to the edge of the mound, and directly removed the plank in front of them, and then poured the wheelbarrow down, and the cart full of dirt, sand and gravel fell down.