The Qing army braved the scorching sun and heat to build stone city walls, which can be said to be miserable. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 infoCai Yumao built this stone wall, which could delay the pace of the Qiongzhou army's attack. But Cai Yumao didn't know that in fact, Wang [Fu] Chen was not in a hurry to capture Fengyang, but was deliberately delaying time. Because Wang [Fu] Chen had a ruthless plan, that is, to attract the Shandong Green Battalion, and when all the Qing troops were assembled, the Qiongzhou army's swarm of bee fire vans, new mortars, and Mini bullet line infantry could play a role, and the assembled Qing army would be wiped out in one fell swoop.

The so-called new mortar is an eight-pounder light mortar gun, the barrel length is longer than the original mortar, the caliber body tube ratio is larger, the barrel is three feet long, bronze casting, the base is an iron base, the gun body weighs fifty pounds, which is heavier than the original eight-pounder mortar gun, but the accuracy and reliability are much improved.

The shells used in the new eight-pounder mortar are shells with wings, which are very similar in appearance to later mortars, and the fuse adopts a medicine disc fuse, which is located at the tail of the warhead. There is an iron tube at the tail of the warhead, and when the propellant explodes, a scorching gunpowder gas is poured into the iron pipe, and then the fuse in the cartridge is ignited, and the shell explodes when it hits the ground or just before it hits the ground. The iron pipe has four wings on the outside for increased accuracy.

The mortar cannon's projectile pack is also a fixed cartridge, which is fast to reload. Not enough, because the primer and firing pin firing device are not yet very perfect, and it is not yet possible to create a closed air circle, so this new type of mortar has not yet been developed into a mortar.

The principle of the mortar is to let the shell fall in free fall in the barrel, and the primer at the tail of the shell hits the firing pin at the tail of the barrel, igniting the propellant and firing the shell. In order for the shell to fall freely in the barrel and have enough impact force to trigger a primer, it is necessary to have the least friction between the shell and the barrel, but in this way, the air tightness is poor, which will lead to a serious lack of chamber pressure, and even the shell cannot be fired. In order to solve this problem, mortar shells have closed air rings on them, and when the propellant is detonated, the closed air ring expands, sealing the gunpowder gases and providing enough pressure for the shells.

Without solving the problems of firing pin reliability and breath-holding, the mortar could not have developed into a real mortar.

Therefore, the friction between the shell and the barrel wall of the new mortar is still very large, and the shell cannot be dropped and fired. Therefore, this new type of mortar is to adopt the method of flintlock pulling and ignition.

When loading the shell, the cartridge is first pushed into the chamber at the end of the barrel with a wooden pole, and then the shell is inserted, and then the cone is pierced through the fire door, the cartridge is punctured, the primer tube is connected, and the gun is ignited with a flintlock puller. This mortar is certainly slower to reload than a mortar, but much faster than a front-loading howitzer and a front-loading cannon.

In the era of front-loading guns, the barrel was short, and the reloading was definitely fast.

"General, the Tartars built a stone wall, and it is not difficult to break through it!" Bai Guangyong advised, "As long as we suppress the city head with artillery fire and stragglers, and then let people go up, we can blow up the city wall." ”

Wang [Fu] Chen laughed: "Don't worry! I hope that the more Tartars come, the better! ”

The Ming army was not in a hurry to attack, but built camps outside the city, dug trenches, built towers, and built earthen cities, which seemed to be ready for a long-term siege.

Cai Yumao, who was in the camp of the Qing army, stood on a high platform and observed the movements of the Ming army with a telescope.

"Minggou is also helpless with the old man's stone wall! Hum! Let you besiege it! When hundreds of thousands of reinforcements from the Qing Dynasty arrive, only 30,000 Ming dogs will not fall apart! Cai Yumao sneered.

In fact, there were only more than 30,000 soldiers and horses of the Ming army in the Wang [auxiliary] ministers, only 2,000 heavy cavalry, 5,000 dragoons, 8,000 smoothbore gunners, 3,000 rifled gunners, 200 stragglers, 50 sharpshooters, 2,000 sword and shield men, and 5,000 artillerymen, plus 5,000 railway guards, 5,000 unused new mortars and 5,000 swarm of bee wagons, about 30,000 soldiers. The rest of the more than 100,000 people were railroad soldiers.

Although the soldiers of the king [auxiliary] minister were few, they were an elite army of all firearms, and even the sword and shield men and heavy cavalry were also equipped with firearms such as short guns, each heavy cavalry was equipped with a breech-loading rifled thunderbolt short gun, and the sword and shield hand was equipped with a double-barreled short gun and grenades.

The powerful swarm of bee fire vans and new mortar cannons have not yet been put into use, just waiting for the Qing army to assemble.

"Report to the General! The Tartar cavalry has arrived! "A scout cavalry reported to the king's [auxiliary] courtiers.

"How many people came?" Wang [Fu] asked the minister.

"Not much, the Tartars have three thousand cavalry, but they are not the Eight Banners, they are the Green Battalion Horse Team." The scout replied.

In this era, the most elite cavalry of the Qing army was the Eight Banners Cavalry outside the Guan, followed by the Ganshan Green Battalion Horse Team, the third ranked Eight Banners Cavalry in the Guannei, and the ordinary Green Battalion Horse Team was the weakest cavalry.

"Humph!" Wang [Fu] Chen sneered, "The horse team of the Ganshan Green Camp has already surrendered, but the Shandong Green Camp has come!" Didn't these Tartar cavalrymen come to send them to their deaths? They sent horses to our army! ”

It was the Shandong Green Camp Horse Team that came, but where did the Qing cavalry dare to attack the Qiongzhou Army formation, but quickly fled into the city, in the name of it, to assist General Cai in defending the city.

……

In Jining, Shandong, there are ships moored on the side of the canal, and on the riverbank, several Qing army camps are stationed. The Qing troops from all over Shandong came to Jining one after another to assemble, and originally they would not gather for more than a month to gather south, because the Ming army launched an attack in advance, and the Qing army was forced to assemble by the canal in advance, waiting for a boat attack.

The assembled Shandong Qing army will board the ship in Jining, go south along the canal, reach Lianghuai, and then enter Hongze Lake along the small river, and then go upstream, you can reach Fengyang to meet the Ming army.

Although there are waterways to take boats along the way from Jining to Fengyang, the Qing troops gathered in various parts of Shandong, except for the Qing troops along the canals such as Dezhou, the Qing troops in other places, such as the Qing army in Jinan, the Qing army in Wendeng, the Qing army in Laizhou, and the Qing army in Jimo, can only go south by boat to Jining on foot.

In this day and age, marching by land was a headache, let alone transporting food and baggage by land.

On the official roads in Shandong, the Qing army braved the scorching sun and walked hard under the sun. The auxiliaries and civilians who followed the soldiers were panting and pushing all kinds of vehicles. At first, everyone was sweating, but in the back, even the sweat was dry, and the body was covered with slimy sludge.

"What the hell! It's so hot! I can't walk anymore! A shirtless soldier sat on the ground.

All the Qing soldiers did not wear armor when they were marching, the weather was too hot, many people were wearing only a sleeveless short coat, and some even took off their shirts and walked shirtless, just like that, they still stopped and stopped, especially when they walked to the shade of trees, and no one refused to move.