At the fifth watch, the horn sounded in the camp, and everyone was woken up and began to have breakfast. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

Xu Ming held the rice bowl and ate rice with braised pork, and there was steaming egg soup in the big wooden barrel.

Before Wang Xinyu came to this era, people in this era generally had two meals a day, breakfast was a formal main meal, and ordinary people had a more casual dinner, and they could only eat well during the New Year's holiday. Wang Xinyu came to this era, and both the Qiongzhou Army and Jiangnan began to eat three meals a day, and breakfast became simple, mainly drinking porridge.

However, the breakfast before the battle is still the main meal, in order to avoid frequent small solutions, the breakfast before the battle is mainly to eat dry rice or steamed buns, and do not drink gruel.

After breakfast, Li Laiheng ordered to start clearing the obstacles around Chencang, and then pushed the shield cart under the city to prepare to fill the moat.

Chencang is a small city, but its geographical location is very important. Since the Qing army learned the information that the loyal battalion left Hanzhong and prepared to attack Guanzhong, they began to arrange in Chencang, repaired the city wall, built a fortress at the head of the city, widened the moat, arranged a large number of wooden stakes and deer outside the moat, and dug out pits one by one to prevent the Ming army's siege weapons from approaching the city wall. At the head of Chencang City, the Qing army also arranged more than a dozen Hongyi cannons and hundreds of small cannons.

It can be expected that the battle of Baoji will be the first bloody battle after the loyal battalion left Hanzhong.

"Let's start the siege! Divide a part of the auxiliaries and continue to chop wood and build large siege weapons, and the rest of the auxiliaries are all pushing the shield cart and preparing to go up! Li Laiheng gave the order.

After a whole day's work yesterday, more than 50,000 auxiliaries, civilians, and craftsmen have built more than 200 shield carts. Today, Li Laiheng is going to use 5,000 auxiliary soldiers to push the shield cart to destroy the obstacles on the periphery of the moat, and it is estimated that this work will take two or three days; After the obstacle is destroyed, the moat is filled. In these few days, the rest of the people, auxiliaries and craftsmen continued to build a variety of large-scale siege weapons, such as large ladders, large nest cars, watchtower cars, large trench and bridge vehicles, those large siege weapons need at least half a month to build, within this half a month, the loyal battalion can clear the fortifications outside the city, and then use simple ladders and large siege weapons to attack the city wall.

Although the loyal battalion has the cooperation of the Qiongzhou Army in Sichuan, because of the restrictions of terrain and transportation, the Qiongzhou Army in Central Sichuan has no long-range heavy artillery, only mountain howitzers, three-pounder cannons and various mortars, the range of these guns is not as far as the artillery of the Qing army in the city, so the auxiliary soldiers will attack the city with shield carts, and they will suffer certain losses.

Within a mile of the city, there were various obstacles arranged by the Qing army, among which there were many strong large stones used to prevent the Ming army from digging trenches. Within this mile is within the artillery coverage of the Qing army. If the outer obstacles were not cleared, the Ming army auxiliaries and Minzhuang would not be able to advance the fortifications used for siege to within the range of their artillery.

The war drums rumbled, the horns sounded, and more than 5,000 auxiliary soldiers of the loyal battalion pushed more than 200 shield carts, and more than 1,000 soldiers pressed the formation, slowly advancing towards the city wall step by step. Most of these auxiliaries used as cannon fodder by the loyal battalion were prisoners of war of the Qing army of the Green Battalion, and some of them were prisoners of war of the Wu army.

Some time ago, the Wu army fought with the loyal battalion, and although the Wu army won, some personnel were captured. These captured Wu soldiers were also incorporated into auxiliary battalions and used as cannon fodder for siege warfare.

"The thieves are coming! Get ready! Wang Jinbao stood at the head of the city, pointing in the direction of the Ming army and yelling.

The head of the city of Chencang has been strengthened and the city wall has been heightened, the Qing army also used the cement imported from the Nanyang Company at a high price to build a large number of fortresses on the city wall, every hundred steps, there is a fortress, in the fortress to arrange musketeers, the top of the fortress to arrange archers and small general artillery, as long as the attacking loyal battalion to attack the city, will be hit by the cross fire of the fortress.

Although the shield cart had not advanced to the foot of the city wall at this time, and it was not yet hit by crossfire from both sides, the Qing army's Hongyi cannons and general cannons on the front city wall, as well as the thousand-pound Buddha Lang machine cannon, could pose a huge threat to loyalty.

The war drums rumbled, and with Li Laiheng's order, the soldiers waved the banner and issued an order. After the auxiliaries received the order, more than 200 shield carts immediately dispersed, formed a straggler line, and advanced towards the city wall. Scattered and lined up in a skirmish line to avoid too many concentration of shield vehicles and heavy losses under the artillery fire of the Qing army.

The war drums in front rumbled, the auxiliaries pushed the shield carts forward, and the auxiliaries and minzhuang in the back, under the guidance of the craftsmen, wielded axes and saws, roughly processed the felled trees, and then made them into various siege equipment, many of them had not slept all night, their eyes were bloodshot, their bodies were sore and tired, but they still gritted their teeth and worked hard.

"This uncle, go to the rest party!" Chen Shuigen, who was in charge of guarding on the side, walked up and said to a craftsman with gray hair who looked like he was in his fifties.

This craftsman's name is Zhang Genshuo, originally a native of Sichuan, Zhang Xianzhong, the Ming army and the Qing army took turns to ravage Sichuan, Sichuan ten rooms and nine empty, a large number of population losses, Zhang Genshuo, who was in his twenties at the time, fled into the deep mountains and old forests in order to escape being caught. Because he was originally the son of a carpenter, he built houses in the mountains of western Sichuan, and also built houses for other fleeing people, and practiced a good craft. After the Qiongzhou army entered Sichuan, he saw the development of Chengdu, so he brought his family back.

This time, the Qiongzhou Army in central Sichuan cooperated with the loyal battalion to send troops, and Zhang Genshuo also voluntarily signed up and joined the Minzhuang team. In the Qiongzhou army, the treatment of the people is not bad, especially the skilled craftsmen.

"It doesn't matter, in order to get rid of the Tartars as soon as possible, it's worth getting old and tired!" Jang Geun Suk replied with a smile, "There is a ladder truck built by the old to ensure that you don't hurt a single hair to get to the top of the city!" ”

As he was talking, the sound of cannons sounded at the head of Chencang City in front, white smoke rose from the fort at the head of the city, and whistling cannonballs smashed towards the advancing shield cart.

Jang Geun Suk raised his head and looked at the shield car in front of him: "The shield car built by the old superintendent can block a shell from the Franc machine and the general cannon, but it still can't stop the Hongyi cannon." ”

The shield car of the Ming army was still quite strong, with two layers of thick wooden planks in front, and the outside of the shield was covered with wet felt, smeared with thick wet soil, and behind it was a two-wheeled car. The shield cart can also be covered with a thick canvas cloth as needed, which can withstand the light arrows fired by the crane.

A row of shells of the Qing army smashed into the Ming army's shield car formation, only two shield cars were hit by shells, and they were all shells fired by light artillery, the shield car that was shot paused for a moment, and someone behind the shield car made a scream, but soon, the shield car continued to advance slowly.

Several shells from the Hongyi cannon fell to the ground, bounced and rolled, and did not hit the shield car, but two auxiliaries were unfortunately grazed by the bouncing shells, and their arms flew out on the spot.