"On the one hand, we have strengthened the protection of the auxiliaries from being injured by Tartar arrows and firearms; On the other hand, we bombarded the city with artillery, fired with sharpshooters and rifled gunners, and shot Tartar archers and musketeers to minimize civilian casualties, so that we could ensure that the auxiliaries filled the moat. This is Wang Yuyou's strategy.

Wang Xinyu asked rhetorically at that time: "This can only be a temporary solution, when we attack the city, we must use siege mortars to bombard the city, at that time, if the Tartars use the people as hostages, what should we do?" ”

"At that time, it will depend on whether the handsome man has the kindness of a woman!" Wang Yuyou replied.

Sun Tzu's Art of War is cloudy, so there will be five dangers: death, but killing; will be born, but can be captured; Angry, insulting; Incorruptible, humiliating; Love the people, but it's annoying.

Among them, benevolence and love for the people is a hurdle that many famous generals in history find difficult to pass. Li Dingguo is planted in Xinhui in this regard! Li Dingguo attacked Guangdong for the second time, attacked Xinhui, and was about to break the city, the Qing army in the city suddenly drove the people to launch a counter-charge, Li Dingguo couldn't bear to start, and finally the Qing army blocked the gap in the city wall, and the success was lost.

Li Dingguo is benevolent and loves the people, how do the people of Xinhui repay him? On the one hand, these ordinary people used as cannon fodder for the Qing army under the butcher's knife of the Qing army; On the other hand, they were afraid that Li Dingguo would not be able to hold the Xinhui after he conquered it, and the Qing army would bloody massacre the city after it came back, so they resolutely helped the Qing army defend the city and swore to resist Li Dingguo to the death. Anyway, Li Dingguo is so merciful, even if he can break through Xinhui, he will not embarrass these people who helped the Qing army.

After Xinhui ran out of food, the Qing army coerced the people in the city to voluntarily sacrifice a two-legged sheep for the Qing army in the city to eat. But were the women who were eaten willingly?

"We can't let Ningbo become a second Xinhui, we should make a decision! There can be no woman's kindness! This is the same view as Wang Yuyou and Wang Xinyu.

The longer it drags on, the greater the casualties among the people in the city will be. Only by taking the city as soon as possible and slaughtering the whole city as a retaliation is the best choice. Slaughtering the whole city and killing all the eight banners in the city can shock the Qing court and teach them a lesson, so that they will never dare to use such a despicable trick in the future.

However, before it was time to attack the city wall, Wang Yuyou still decided to use the point fire of sharpshooters and rifled guns to shock the Qing army in the city and reduce the casualties of the people as much as possible.

"They fired!" The women, children, old and infirm at the head of the city cried out in terror.

A mother squatted on the ground with her head bowed, her daughter in one hand, her infant son in her arms, and shivered like a hen guarding her chicks in a storm.

The cannon roared, and the whistling cannonballs crossed the city and smashed into the city, smashing large swathes of houses to collapse and collapse. However, the city was not shelled by the Ming army.

"They didn't shoot at us!" The common people did not feel the shell that represented death falling on their side, and they breathed a sigh of relief.

But at this moment, the roar of muskets and the whistling of arrows rang out from below the city.

"Ahh The people at the head of the city were in great confusion, and they all turned around and ran.

However, the bullets and arrows were fired at the city walls, and the people at the head of the city found themselves safe and sound. Just when the common people turned around and ran around, the Qing soldiers standing behind them were exposed to the fire of the Ming army under the city.

The opportunity must not be missed, Gong Xiaoda, the general of the Qiongzhou Army, immediately gave an order: "Fire!" ”

Eighty carefully selected rifled gunners, one hundred and fifty sharpshooters and sixty Russian musketeers of Wang Xinyu opened fire at the same time. They didn't fire just now, they just waited for this moment.

The guns roared, the feather arrows roared, and more than 100 Qing soldiers were shot and fell in a pool of blood.

This time, the Russian musketeers were not carrying flintlock pistols issued to them by Wang Xinyu, but using their own long-barreled arquebuses. The Russian gun has its advantages, that is, the barrel is long, the accuracy is high, the effective firing range is 70 paces, about 100 meters, and it can accurately hit the target within 40 steps. Therefore, the batch of Russian muskets captured by Zheng Xi in Nuergan is a relatively advanced weapon in this era.

In real history, the Qing army later captured these more advanced Russian muskets, but they were not allowed to be imitated by the first emperor of the ages, but remained in the palace as their own playthings.

"Bang" Ivanov pulled the trigger, and the Russian long-barreled arquebus made a roar. Through the smoke of gunpowder, Ivanov saw the blood mist spewing from the chest of the Qing soldier he was targeting, and fell backwards on his back. Ivanov retreated, nervously reloading gunpowder and projectiles, ready to fire again.

The Mongol Tsewangzhab, who was standing beside him, had just shot an arrow to kill a Qing soldier, he turned his head to look at Ivanov, took another arrow from the quiver, opened his bow and shot the second Qing soldier.

"Or my bow and arrow are better than the Rakshasa firearms!" Tsewang Zabu said secretly in his heart.

At the head of the city, the Qing soldiers found that the Ming army did not fire at the people, but used the method of fire intimidation to scare the people away, and then opened fire on themselves! The Qing army officer understood and immediately urged the soldiers: "Quick! Ming Dog didn't dare to shoot arrows at the people! Hurry up and pull those brutes up again and put them in front of us! ”

The woman who had just been startled by the sound of gunfire, but found that she was safe and sound, was squatting behind the crowd with her daughter in one hand and her youngest son in the other. At this time, a Qing soldier came up with a whip, and the whip in his hand fell on the little girl: "Go up!" ”

The woman leaned forward to protect her daughter, the whip raining down on her back.

"Don't hit my mother!" Although she was young but very sensible, her daughter pounced on her and hugged Qing Bing's feet.

The Qing soldier was furious, and the whip in his hand hit the little girl's face, leaving a bloody mark.

"Boy!" The woman cried and stepped forward, desperately pulling the Qing soldier.

"Jian woman!" The soldier kicked the little girl away, pulled out his knife and was about to cut off the woman's head. At this moment, only a "bang" of gunfire was heard from the city, the Qing soldier let out a miserable scream, the knife in his hand fell to the ground, lowered his head and looked at his exploding chest in disbelief, shook twice, and fell backwards on his back.

Ivanov put away the arquebus in a chic manner, turned his head to look at Tsewangzab, who was pulling the bowstring and aiming at the target: "Or am I aiming more accurately!" ”

Tsewang Zabu snorted coldly, and shot another arrow, and a Qing soldier hiding behind the people was shot in the throat, and without even snorting, he fell backwards on his back.

Although rifled gunners, Russian musketeers, and sharpshooters tried their best to avoid harming the people, and accurately shot deadly projectiles and feathered arrows at the Qing soldiers behind the people, they still could not prevent the Qing soldiers from once again surrounding the people into a human wall, and the Qing soldiers hid behind the people, released arrows, and shot a dense number of projectiles and locust-like arrows at the auxiliary soldiers under the city.

Wang Xinyu strengthened the protection of the auxiliary soldiers, and the auxiliary soldiers and the strong part of the people who participated in the river reclamation were all dressed in paper armor or wooden armor and wore six-petal helmets, which could greatly avoid being hit by the long-range fire of the Qing army, but many auxiliary soldiers were still wounded by arrows and fell. Some of the auxiliaries and people were shot in the throat or in the face, screaming, and falling into the moat with sandbags.

The rifled gunners, sharpshooters and Russian musketeers of the Ming army under the city stood behind the shield car, and with the help of the protection of the shield car, they continued to launch accurate point shots at the head of the city, and harvested the lives of many Qing soldiers, but the number of rifled gunners, sharpshooters and Russian musketeers was too small, and the Qing soldiers and ordinary people were human walls, which could not suppress the firepower of the Qing soldiers at all. But their efforts, coupled with the protection of the auxiliaries and the people, have minimized the losses.

Auxiliaries and Minzhuang kept falling, but the auxiliaries and Minzhuang behind dragged the wounded back, stepped on the bodies of the dead, rushed to the moat with sandbags, and threw sandbags continuously.

The two sides fought until dark, and the Ming army paid the price of more than 800 auxiliaries and Minzhuang wounded, more than 200 auxiliaries and Minzhuang killed, three sharpshooters wounded, and four Russian musketeers wounded, throwing tens of thousands of sandbags and filling a 30-pace-long moat five steps wide. The width of the moat chosen by Wang Xinyu is about 30 steps, and according to this construction progress, as long as there are five more days, a siege passage can be filled in on the moat.

After dark, the Ming army let another letter in.

In the city of Ningbo, in the governor's mansion of Zhejiang.

Ilde's face turned pale, he pointed to the letter that had just been shot on the desk, and shouted at Fan Chengmo: "If the city of Ningbo is slaughtered and the banner people are killed, this is all your responsibility!" The court will punish you for the nine clans, and you will even be wiped out by Lao Tzu! If you're wise, don't use this method! Not only can we save the lives of the people of the city flag, but we can also save our family! ”

The letter from the Ming army reads: Fan Chengmo took the people as a hostage and resisted my royal division! When our army attacked the city, it caused unnecessary casualties to our army and caused a large number of casualties among the people in the city! In order to retaliate for this matter, the clan has decided that after conquering Ningbo, it will slaughter the whole city and destroy the banner people in the city! This letter was sent in triplicate, one copy to Ningbo City, and the other two copies were copied to the Anqing Ao Worship Office and the Beijing Puppet Qing Imperial Court! At that time, the whole city will be slaughtered, and the blame will all lie with Fan Chengmo and Ilde!

Fan Chengmo sneered: "Lord Ilde, didn't you see the barbarian's performance today?" What methods do they use? They used sharpshooters and sharpshooters, even red-haired gunsstickers, just to avoid harming the barbarian people! What does this mean? It shows that the barbarians will not dare to harm their people! Filling the moat is only the first step in the siege! Next, the barbarians will bombard the city with cannons before they can attack it! As long as we put the barbarian people at the head of the city, how can they bombard the city with cannons? If they attack the city, then we can give them a taste of the power of our defense weapons! ”

"So what about us tomorrow? If we use women, children, old and weak as human walls, although we shoot a group of their auxiliaries, our damage today is not small! Those barbarian archers and sharpshooters are too powerful! We've lost more than 400 people! Ilder asked.

Fan Chengmo sneered: "The barbarian has a plan to deal with it, and this official has already had a plan!" Tomorrow's general will see it! ”

The next day, just after dawn, the Ming army attacked the city again.

This time, the Qing army also changed its tactics, no longer using women and children as meat shields to resist the Ming army's bows and arrows, but drove the women and children to carry bricks, stones and sandbags, and repaired the female wall battlements at the head of the city.

There was a cry of crying at the head of the city, after all, these women and children were not as old and weak as the young men, and they lacked strength, and it was a very physical effort to carry heavy stones, bricks, and sandbags to repair the city wall, and many people were so tired that they wanted to take a breath, and the whips of the Qing soldiers behind them rained down on them.

The woman who was rescued by the Russian soldier Ivanov yesterday, with her daughter, panting to carry the city bricks. Her youngest son did not come today, because the Qing soldier was merciful and allowed her to put his son back in the house, and only let her take her ten-year-old daughter to the city with her.

The ten-year-old girl carried the bricks with her immature hands, and she didn't know how many times she had gone back and forth, and her fingers were bloodied.

When the mother saw that her daughter was affected, she couldn't bear it, so she took a few bricks from her daughter's hand and carried as much as she could, so as to reduce her daughter's burden.

A Qing soldier saw that the woman was still relatively strong, so he came up and pointed at her and said, "You, come and help carry the stones!" ”

Under the coercion of the butcher's knife of the Qing soldiers, the woman had to lift a heavy large stone with another woman and two old men, and put the stone on the side of the city wall panting, repairing the female wall and the battlement.

There were constantly people who were so tired that they couldn't walk, but the Qing soldiers behind them showed no mercy, and the whip in their hands was whipped down.

"Gou Tartar, this time you don't let go of the arrows to stop us, but you use women, children, old and weak to repair the city wall!" When Gong Xiaoda heard the screams and cries of the city, his eyes were about to erupt with fire.

Luo Xiang stepped forward to persuade him: "Xiaoda, let them cultivate!" All we have to do is fill in the river! When we fill in the moat, we will bombard the city wall with mortars, not to mention the female wall and the battlements, even the city wall will be flattened! ”

"Bombardment of the city?" Gong Xiaoda's eyes widened in shock, "What about the people in the city?" ”

"There must be no woman's kindness in leading troops into battle! Although our bombardment of the city will cause a large number of casualties, if we do not bombard the city, the number of casualties will be even greater if the time drags on! Only by getting out and being decisive can we save more people! Luo Xiang said.

After five days of construction, the Ming army filled in two 30-meter-long moats and filled in two siege passages under the city of Ningbo. Of course, the Qing soldiers also repaired the female wall battlements and strengthened the defense of the city.

Seeing that the moat had been filled out, Fan Chengmo knew in his heart that the Ming army's attack was about to begin. He ordered that women and children, old and weak, go to the city day and night, and use it as a shield against the artillery fire of the Ming army, so as to prevent the Ming army from bombarding the city wall with artillery.

"As long as these women, old people and children are here, Minggou will definitely not dare to bombard the city with cannons!" Fan Chengmo said confidently. (To be continued.) )