The cityhead trebuchet kept firing stone projectiles, although the hit rate was not high, but it was a great shock to the auxiliary soldiers pushing the shield cart, and accidentally hitting a shield cart could cause the tragedy of the car being destroyed and people killed.

Li Rui, who was standing on the nest car, watched the Qing army's trebuchet continue to shoot stones from behind the city wall, and wondered: the Qing army's trebuchet couldn't see the situation outside, how did they know the location of the target? Looking at the head of the city again, I saw that there were Qing soldiers holding small flags at the head of the city and shaking them constantly, first pointing to the location of the shield car outside the city, and then shaking the small flag into the city.

"I see!" Li Rui stretched out his bow and aimed at a Qing soldier holding a small flag.

The nest car was about one hundred and thirty steps away from the city wall, and the trebuchets in the city could not hit the nest car, and the Qing archers could not attack the Ming army on the nest car. But a sharpshooter like Li Rui can shoot the Qing soldiers at the head of the city with a strong bow.

"Whoosh" A sharp arrow was fired, and the Qing soldier holding a small flag was shot by an arrow in his throat and fell down immediately.

However, another Qing soldier immediately made up for it, picked up the small flag, and continued to guide the trebuchets in the city.

Li Rui shot the second Qing soldier at the head of the city with an arrow.

The third Qing soldier came up again to pick up the small flag, and was killed by Li Rui's arrow.

Twelve Qing soldiers were shot in a row, this kind of strong bow consumed a lot of arm strength, Li Rui was already sore, and he couldn't pull the bow anymore, so he could only watch the Qing soldiers use small flags to guide the trebuchet to the target.

At the cost of four shield carts being smashed, more than twenty auxiliaries and two lightly armored soldiers being killed or wounded, the shield carts finally advanced to the obstacle area under the city walls. There was an obstacle on the road ahead, and the shield cart could not push it. The auxiliaries of the cart could only take the risk of going to the front of the shield cart and chopping stakes and deer barricades with axes.

The bows and arrows of the Qing soldiers on the head of the city and the birds fired in unison, the arrows flew like locusts, and the bullets rained down. The auxiliaries who wielded axes and tried to destroy obstacles such as stakes and deer barbs fell in large numbers. The trebuchet was also replaced with bags of small stones, and when it was launched, it was a rain of stones like scattered flowers falling down, and a large number of stones fell from the air, and there was no need for any precision at all, and the dense stones could always hit people.

Many of the auxiliaries were stoned to the ground, and even the Overseers who were following behind the shield cart were wounded several times.

Several small guns of the Qing army at the head of the city also opened fire, and the shells hit a shield car. The sturdy shield cart was torn apart, and the broken planks were like shrapnel, knocking over several of the auxiliaries behind.

Stones the size of goose eggs fell like hailstones, and many of the auxiliaries who were chopping wooden stakes and deer were falling.

"Mom!" Someone dropped the axe, turned and ran behind the shield cart, and was immediately beheaded by the Overseer standing behind.

The bloody human heads frightened the remaining auxiliaries, and they did not dare to turn their heads and flee without permission, so they could only brave arrows, projectiles, and flying stones, swing axes, and slash desperately to destroy the wooden stakes and other obstacles under the city.

"Boom" The artillery of the Ming army also opened fire, rows of shells smashed on the head of the city, a large part of the female wall was smashed down, standing at the head of the city, the Qing soldiers who were shooting with bows and arrows and bird guns were beaten by the shells and flesh and blood, and a large number of people were killed and wounded.

Several shells smashed the women's wall and then hit the gun emplacements at the head of the city. One of the shells accurately smashed on a tiger squat cannon, and the small cannon spun and flew up, and after flying into the sky for more than ten meters, it smashed down heavily on the city.

The surrounding Qing soldiers hurriedly scattered and fled, but some people were still hit by the tiger squat cannon that fell down, smashed their bones and fell in a pool of blood.

Although the artillery bombardment of the Ming army suppressed the archers and bird gunners of the Qing army, the artillery could not attack the Qing trebuchets hiding behind the city walls. Wang Xinyu could only watch as the flying stones kept falling, smashing into the crowd of his auxiliaries, stirring up patches of dazzling blood.

More than a hundred auxiliaries and more than a dozen native soldiers were killed and wounded, but no progress was made.

Seeing that a large number of Ming soldiers fell under the city, although they were prisoners, but the prisoners could not be squandered like this, in desperation, Wang Xinyu had no choice but to order Mingjin to withdraw his troops.

Hearing the sound of gold, the auxiliary soldiers who had suffered so much under the city were relieved of their burdens, and they all pulled the shield cart and ran back.

"This trebuchet behind the city wall is a real headache! We can't beat them, but they can beat us! Wang Xinyu muttered to himself.

How to attack the city is indeed a headache, and the red-coated cannons on the warship can be removed to bombard the city wall, and the city wall can be destroyed. But the red-coated cannons were extremely heavy, and it took a lot of effort to move them off the ship and under the city. Moreover, the city wall of Qiongzhou is thick, and it will take a long time to collapse the city wall. Even if a section of the city wall is collapsed, the Qing army inside can still plug the gap. Even if you break through a gap, there is still a sub-city inside, and you will have to pay a heavy price to attack it.

Albert, who was standing on the side, saw Wang Xinyu frowning, and came up with a solution: "Boss, I have a way to destroy the trebuchets in the city!" ”

"What's the solution?" Wang Xinyu hurriedly asked.

Albert made his own suggestion: "Isn't there a short-barreled cannon on our Warrior class? Each Warrior has two short-barreled cannons, for a total of eight short-barreled cannons. This cannon is also not very heavy and can be moved down and erected outside the city. Observe with the sharpshooter on the nest car, guide the target of the short-barreled cannon, and attack the target in the city! ”

"Good way!" Wang Xinyu suddenly realized and slapped his thigh, "This can make people move the mortar cannon off the boat and transport it over!" ”

Each Class IV cruiser had two 32-pounder short-barreled guns, for a total of eight short-barreled guns.

At the Haikou Town Dock, the Drake and her three sister ships were quietly docked at the edge of the dock, and the officers and men of the Naval Division were busy on the upper deck, disassembling the short-barreled guns from the base.

In fact, the 32-pounder short-barreled cannon on the battleship is not a mortar in the real sense, the weight and body of this cannon are larger than the mortar cannon, but it is much lighter than the weight of the long-barreled cannon, the length of this cannon is only about two meters, and the gun weighs more than 500 catties.

It's just that Wang Xinyu has always mistaken the short-barreled cannon for a mortar, and when communicating with Albert, the other party spoke English, Wang Xinyu is very good at English Bush, and he didn't know that there was a short-barreled cannon, so he translated the term short-barreled cannon into a mortar by himself as Albert.

The short-barreled cannon has a short barrel and a small amount of gunpowder for loading and firing, so the recoil is naturally smaller than that of the long-barreled cannon, so it can be used on the deck of a battleship. When dealing with targets such as forts and castles, it can raise the muzzle of the gun and use it as a howitzer for long-range attack, or it can be used as a mortar for curved fire. Compared with the later Karen cannon, the weight of the short-barreled cannon is still much lighter, and of course the power is not as powerful as the Karen cannon that appeared later.

Auxiliaries and craftsmen pushed the built man-powered cranes to the docks, and several sailors unloaded the cannons from the gun mounts, fixed them with thick hemp rope, and hooked them with iron hooks. Then the auxiliaries on the pier pulled the winch, hoisted the cannon, and sent it to the shore.

The short-barreled cannon was placed on a newly-built four-wheeled gun cart, and after it was fixed, several auxiliaries hung the cannon on the oxen, pulled a cannon with two oxen, and slowly walked down the city.

After the cannon was delivered to the artillery position, the cannon was lifted from the artillery carriage with ten auxiliaries and placed on the ground. Later, the British gunners fixed the cannon to a wooden base, and installed iron brackets and the like to fix the cannon so that the cannon had sufficient elevation angles.

After intense preparations, it was busy until dark, and the eight short-barreled cannons were not ready. Because it was already dark, the Ming army temporarily stopped the attack on the capital city of Qiongzhou and waited for the next morning to launch an attack.

When carrying the cannons, Wang Xinyu also asked the auxiliaries to cut down trees and build sixteen catapults.

The British gunners worked overnight to prepare the artillery, and it was not until late at night that the eight guns were really ready.

Early the next morning, the Ming army attacked the city again.

The majestic and heavy war drums resounded in the sky, accompanied by the neat footsteps of the Ming army, and the earth shook. The neat ironclad soldiers stood at the forefront, their iron shields and iron armor shining brightly in the sunlight; The musketeers and archers behind aimed at the head of the city and advanced step by step. The cannons behind the Ming formations showed sharp teeth, ready to devour the life of the city at any time. The neat lineup and sophisticated weapons made the Qing army at the head of the city feel terrified.

"Beat the drums!" Zhu Zhiguang roared.

The Qing army also beat the drums of war to boost the morale of the soldiers.

It may be that the momentum of the soldier who was beating the drum was not enough, and a Qing army commander pushed the Qing soldier away, personally grabbed the drumstick, and beat the drum desperately to beat the Qing soldiers at the head of the city.

Seeing that Mr. Qian personally beat the drums, the Qing soldiers who had been suppressed by the Ming army suddenly boosted their morale, and they lined up in formation at the head of the city to prepare to attack.

Zhu Zhiguang knew very well in his heart that the Ming army attacked for a while yesterday, and after losing more than 100 people, it stopped attacking the city, and there will definitely be more powerful follow-up methods, and today's defense of the city must be a bitter battle!

In the Ming army's large array, several nest carts that were heightened were pushed out, and these nest carts were raised to a height of six zhang, and on each nest cart, there was a personal soldier wearing Mingguang armor.

When Zhu Zhiguang saw the six-zhang high nest car, he understood one thing: the Ming army must be looking for the location of his trebuchet! But he quickly relented. The opponent has cannons, but the cannonballs can't always attack the trebuchets placed behind the walls, right? Although the Ming army also had catapults, the hit rate of catapults was very low, and it was almost impossible to hit the trebuchets placed behind the city walls.

The Ming army advanced to a distance of two hundred paces from the city wall and stopped. With the sound of a trumpet, shield carts were launched in the array, pushed by the auxiliaries, and advanced towards the city wall. Sixteen catapults also appeared in the Ming army's large array, aiming at the head of the city.

Zhu Zhiguang watched the shield cart advance towards the city wall step by step, and when the shield cart entered within 100 steps, he gave the order to let the trebuchet prepare to fire stone projectiles.

Between the outer city and the sub-city, a large group of Qing soldiers loaded stones in the net pockets of trebuchets and prepared them for launch.

At the head of the city, the Qing soldiers on the lookout waved small flags.

"Put!" A Qing officer in the city yelled.

Dozens of auxiliaries struggled to pull the rope, the trebuchet creaked, and the stone bullets rose into the air, drawing an elegant arc, and smashed down on the heads of the Ming army auxiliaries pushing the shield cart outside the city.

The stone bullet fell to the ground, bouncing incessantly, the ground trembled, and the auxiliary soldiers pushing the shield cart trembled in fear, feeling that the stone might fall on top of their heads at any moment.

Stone projectiles at the head of the city continued to fly out and landed in front of the shield cart array, stirring up countless dust and rubble.

"Bang" An unlucky shield cart was hit by a stone bullet, and suddenly the wooden planks shattered, and the sandbags loaded on the shield cart flew into the sky one after another, and the auxiliary soldiers pushing the shield cart forward screamed and fell six people.

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