The eighth month of the lunar calendar has arrived, the weather in Fuzhou in the middle of September of the solar calendar is still hot, but it is not so hot, the temperature during the day is about 293 degrees, and the night temperature is about 223 degrees, compared to the high temperature of 378 degrees during the day in July and August, or even 40 degrees, and the high temperature of 30 degrees at night has been much more comfortable. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

After the weather turned cooler, Wang Xinyu began to attack the city.

The Ming army besieged Fuzhou for more than three months, throwing a large number of fierce oil cans and a large number of animal carcasses into the city, causing higher temperatures in the city, causing plague in the city, water pollution and other problems, resulting in the loss of defenders in the city and a decline in morale.

Originally, Wang Xinyu planned to put in a three-pounder hexagonal rifled gun to suppress the defenders' artillery, but all the three-pounder front-loading hexagonal rifled guns that had just been produced were pulled to Nanyang, and the attack on Fuzhou could only be carried out by traditional attack methods.

After the weather cooled down, the Ming army began to dig the fortifications that moved forward, arranged siege batteries, and created siege weapons.

The forests around Fuzhou were hit by seedlings, and the auxiliary soldiers and the people cut down trees during the day, and built simple ladders, large ladders, nest cars, shield cars, rushing cars, watchtowers, chariots, simple moat bridges, flying bridge vehicles and other siege weapons at night. Tens of thousands of people and auxiliaries were busy in the forest, and large areas of trees were cut down.

In the evening, when the weather was cooler, Minzhuang and his auxiliaries brought the cut wood back to the barracks and worked overtime overnight to build siege weapons under the campfire.

There are many people and strength, and tens of thousands of people start to build siege weapons at the same time, which is very spectacular. Even if it is a very large ladder truck or a large watchtower, it only takes two or three days to build one.

The key to the siege is that the artillery can suppress the opponent, if the artillery can not suppress the opponent, then any siege weapons are useless, and the sturdy watchtower and the ladder have not yet reached the front, and they will be smashed by the defenders' artillery. As long as the artillery fire suppresses the defenders, even simple siege weapons can capture the city.

In terms of siege firepower, Wang Xinyu did not have any problems at all. The Ming army concentrated 36 12-pounder cannons under the city of Fuzhou, and 24 32-pounder mortars as the first round of suppressive firepower, giving priority to destroying the Qing artillery at the head of the city, and then advancing a large number of six-pounder, four-pounder, three-pounder and 12-pounder mortar guns and other short-range guns, forming a complete suppression of the Qing army at the head of the city, and then it was much easier to attack the city.

On the 25th day of the ninth month of the solar calendar and the 11th day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar, the Ming army launched the artillery fire of the siege of the city.

"Bombard with twelve-pounder cannons first, and blow up all the cannons of the city head Tartar for me! Then use the thirty-two-pounder mortar to fire flowering cannonballs to destroy the remaining Tartar cannons at the head of the city! At seven o'clock in the morning, Wang Xinyu gave the order to attack the city.

Thirty-six twelve-pounder siege cannons were aimed at the walls, and the gunners loaded gunpowder and solid shells.

"Fire!" Gong Xiaoda, the commander of Artillery Town, roared.

The muzzle of the cannon erupted with fire, and the cannon roared so loudly that people's ears buzzed. The twelve-pounder cannon aimed at the Qing army's gun position at the head of the city fired cannonballs, and the whistling cannonballs flew up to the city, raising a cloud of masonry and stone debris.

"Didn't hit the Tartar gun emplacement!" Li Rui, who was standing on the tall wooden tower, put down his binoculars and reported to the artillery in flags.

The gunners cleaned the chamber, adjusted the elevation angle of the gun, and adjusted the amount of gunpowder. Five minutes later, the reloaded twelve-pounder cannon underwent a second round of test firing.

The second round of firing still did not hit the Qing artillery position at the head of the city.

After the third round of artillery was discharged, the shell hit a gun emplacement of the Qing army at the head of the city. The bricks and stones at the head of the city flew horizontally, the ground shook and the mountains shook, and a Hongyi cannon was hit by a roaring twelve-pound cannonball, and the cannon weighing more than 3,000 catties was smashed and jumped. The cannonball hit the cannon body, the solid cannonball shattered into countless pieces of iron, the surrounding Qing soldiers fell to pieces, and the barrel of the Hongyi cannon was also smashed into a large piece.

"Good! Just hit it like that! Li Rui shouted.

Thirty-six twelve-pounder guns fired in turn, relying on the advantage of a longer range than the Qing army's artillery, aiming at the Qing army's artillery position and bombarding it, so that the Qing army's artillery was destroyed one after another.

The Qing army found that its artillery was too close to threaten the Ming artillery positions. In order to preserve their strength, the Qing army simply dragged the remaining artillery down for the time being and hid in a safe corner behind the city wall.

The suppression of the artillery of the Qing army at the head of the city was successful, and the rest of the matter was easy to do.

The Ming army's mortar artillery advanced forward and used flowering shells to inflict large-scale damage on the defenders at the head of the city.

Thirty-two pounder flowering cannonballs landed at the top of the city, bursting into scarlet fireballs. The shells exploded, the Qing soldiers at the head of the city suffered countless casualties, and the iron pots, oil cans, wolf tooth slaps and other weapons arranged at the head of the city were shattered one after another. The fragments of the cannonballs smashed into the iron pot burst into hot gold juice, and the Qing soldiers around who had no time to escape were burned.

Oil flowed out of the ruptured canister, and when the exploding cannonball was ignited, the city immediately burst into flames.

More than 500 of the rest of the artillery also advanced and bombarded the city fiercely. Cannons of various calibers fired tens of thousands of shells in one hour, and the head of the city was in shambles, the battlements of the female wall were shattered, and all kinds of weapons defending the city were smashed to pieces.

"Siege!" Luo Xiang, who was standing on the nest car, gave an order.

Hundreds of drummers beat the drums of war, the horns neighed lowly, and groups of auxiliaries pushed their shield carts closer to the walls.

Most of the auxiliaries pushing the shield cart were original prisoners of war, and Wang Xinyu implemented a military merit point system for the auxiliaries, for example, throwing ten sandbags in a siege battle can get one point; Attack the city, dig a hole, and a group of auxiliaries all get one point.

Auxiliaries who have earned 10 points for combat merit can become official soldiers of the Ming Army, or become baggage transporters who are not very dangerous. In order to be able to become soldiers, or to survive safely, the captives had to work hard to siege the city.

The shield cart advanced out of the moat, with wooden stakes in front of it blocking the passage of the vehicle. These auxiliaries could only stop their advance, risk stepping out from behind the shield carts, swinging axes and slashing to destroy obstacles beneath the city.

The Qing soldiers at the head of the city shot feather arrows and projectiles, and the auxiliaries had no armor on them, and dozens of people fell at once.

The artillery of the Ming army opened fire in the rear formation, and the Qing archers and bird gunners at the head of the city were scattered.

The resistance of the Qing army was much more stubborn than expected, and the Ming army paid the price of the lives of more than 500 auxiliary soldiers to clear the obstacles under the city and fill in a section of the moat.

The shield chariots attacked the city, and the resistance of the city became more and more stubborn.

Most of the Qing troops defending the city were Minzhuang, and when the Ming army auxiliaries chopped down obstacles and filled the moat, the people at the head of the city could not play any role, and could only see the performance of the Qing army's archers and bird guns. Now that the Ming army has attacked the city, the people at the head of the city have begun to throw lime bottles, stones, and oil cans to the city.

The lime bottles that were light in weight and threw far away fell like rain, and the quicklime and water had a chemical reaction, exploding one after another, and the hot lime water splashed everywhere, and the Ming army auxiliaries under the city let out a miserable scream.

Immediately after that, rows of stones fell, and heavy stones fell on the heads of the auxiliaries, causing a flurry of blood. The canister flew down, crackled and burst open, and the city threw out torches and firewood, burning into a sea of fire beneath the walls.

Because the distance between the two sides was close, for fear of accidentally injuring their own side, the artillery of the Ming army no longer bombarded the city. Although the auxiliaries are the cannon fodder for prisoners, firing artillery at their own people has a great impact on morale, and this kind of thing is still less good.

The Ming army's nest car and watchtower car advanced up, and the flintlock pistols, bows and arrows, bipod heavy firearms, and small Franc machine guns on the car continued to splash projectiles and feather arrows like a torrential rain on the city, causing the Qing army to be killed and wounded at the head of the city.

The Qing army supervised the war team and began to wave the big knife to cut people, and many people who were frightened shrank their heads back, not daring to attack the city, and were ruthlessly cut off their heads by the warlord. Some people were so frightened that they sat behind the female wall to avoid the rain of bullets, and when they were seen by the Qing army supervision team, they immediately came up and cut off their heads.

Under the threat of the overseer's broadsword, the people could only poke their heads out and throw lime bottles, stones and canisters of fire oil at the city. Many people were shot by bullets or pierced by feathered arrows as soon as they poked their heads out.

A series of improvised ladders had been erected, and the lightly armored sword and shield men, composed of newly upgraded auxiliaries, began to climb.

After the auxiliaries made military achievements, they were also cannon fodder when they were just upgraded, but they were more advanced cannon fodder. Dressed in wooden armor and bamboo armor and armed with wooden machetes, they climbed up the improvised ladder. The auxiliaries below held on to the ladder so that it would not be pushed down by the Qing soldiers. There is also a hook at the upper end of the simple ladder, which can hook the head of the city, and it is not so easy for the Qing army to knock it down.

"Pour!" The shouts of Qing army officers resounded at the head of the city.

Hot gold juice poured down from the city, and a disgusting stench filled the air. The boiling gold juice splashed on the person's body, and the skin and flesh festered, and if not treated in time, the wound would soon become infected and die.

Although Wang Xinyu's Qiongzhou Army now has much better medical conditions, most of the wounded soldiers who were burned by gold juice had to cut off a large piece of meat, and the wounded soldiers were basically scrapped in the future, and they could only retire and go home, and it was impossible to serve as soldiers again.

Some of the Ming soldiers who had been burned by the gold juice struggled in pain and died soon after.

The oil canister at the head of the city fell, the torches were dropped, and the fire under the city soared into the sky, and a miserable scream sounded.

However, the suppression effect of the nest car and the watchtower car on the Qing army at the head of the city is still very significant, and there are also many dead and wounded on the top of the city, and the corpses of the Qing soldiers and the people are piled up into a hill.

Under the cover of long-range shooters, quite a few lightly armored soldiers have climbed to the top of the city.

"Drive the Ming Dog down!" Kong Yuanzhang, the guard general of the Qing army, shouted and personally rushed up with his own soldiers.

After all, Kong Yuanzhang is the chief soldier of Fuzhou, and he has a certain amount of force, and his personal soldiers are also elite. Seeing that the main general led people up, the Qing soldiers also pressed up, a knife and a gun, the Ming army who had just climbed the head of the city was either killed at the head of the city, or was beaten and fell down from the ladder, some people saw that the situation was not good, turned around and ran, and slid down the ladder.

Although the Qing army repelled the attack of the Ming army on this section of the city wall, in the other direction, the Ming army auxiliary pushed six chariots to the city.

The Qing soldiers and Minzhuang at the head of the city threw canisters of oil, threw torches and firewood, fired rockets, and destroyed two carts. The remaining four wagons were covered by their own long-range fire shooters, and the auxiliaries and civilians worked under the carts wielding shovels and pickaxes, digging bricks and holes in the city walls.

Soon after, another cart was burned with oil and rockets.

The remaining three wagons continued their work, and finally three holes were dug in the wall. Then a coffin filled with gunpowder was brought in to blast the walls.

There were three loud bangs, and three gaps were blown open in the city wall.

"Kill!" Groups of Ming soldiers poured into the city at the gap that had just been blown up, and started a fierce bloody battle with the Qing soldiers blocking the road.

The Qing army pushed the knife cart to block the road, but the Ming army threw a grenade, blowing the knife cart to pieces along with the Qing soldiers in the cart.

At the city gate, the Ming army's rushing car rushed to the city, and the city gate that had been shelled before was crumbling, and the arrow tower at the head of the city had also been destroyed by artillery fire. The car crashed into the crumbling city gate, knocking it open in one fell swoop.

Rushing into the city gate hole, the Qing soldiers above the urn city shot with bows and arrows and bird guns, bullets and feather arrows hit the car, and the Ming army auxiliaries hidden under the car were unscathed. However, the lime bottles dropped by the Qing soldiers on the urn city caused some damage to the auxiliaries.

The large ladder cart also approached, and the soldiers in heavy iron armor stood on the large ladder cart. When the ladder car approached the city wall, the heavy ironclad soldiers waved their long knives, jumped down from the ladder truck, and shouted into the crowd of Qing troops.

The ironclad soldiers were invulnerable, and they smashed into the crowd of the Qing army, like a tiger entering a flock of sheep, and opened a bloody road to kill the city wall above the urn city.

Several of the Ironclad soldiers were shot and fell by the Qing soldiers wielding hammer axes, but the Ming archers who followed the Ironclad Soldiers fired feathered arrows and killed the blunt soldiers who posed the greatest threat to the Ironcladers.

The Ming army slaughtered to the head of the urn city, and a knife and spear pierced, and the Qing archers and bird guns were cut down like weeds.

The car continued to move forward, passed through the urn city, and slammed into the inner city gate.

The second gate in the urn city was quickly knocked open under the impact of the rushing car again and again.

"Kill!" The soldiers of the Ming army who were ambushed outside the city gate shouted, poured in from the city gate, passed through the urn city, and entered the city.

The Ming army implemented the method of multi-way breakthrough, which was also based on the strength of the outnumbered people. And the Qing army defending the city was unable to plug so many gaps because of the small number of elite soldiers. The Ming army broke through on many roads, and the Qing army was in chaos, and the elite soldiers used to block the road did not know which gap to plug, and the result was that the west side was blocked and the east side was missed.

"Quick! All back to the city! Seeing that he couldn't resist it, Kong Yuanzhang retreated to the city with the remnants of the defeated army.

The city is the inner city, and there are some retired Eight Banner soldiers and the families of the banner people stationed in it. In the battle to defend the city just now, the retired Eight Banners and the family members of the Banner family did not move, so they did not suffer any losses. After the Qing army retreated to Manchuria, these retired veterans of the Eight Banners and the families of the banner family were also a force that could not be ignored to defend the city.

In the palace of the inner city, Kong Yuanzhang said to the prefect Wu Liuyi bitterly: "I really didn't expect thieves to be so vicious!" Such a strong outer city of Fuzhou didn't even last a day! (To be continued.) )