Fuzhou is a good city, but not to mention that it is compared with Xiangyang, the world's first strong city, not to mention compared with cities like Nanjing and Beijing, even cities like Guangzhou, Nanchang and Wuchang are much stronger than Fuzhou. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 info Imagine, if the Ming army attacked Xiangyang, it would not be able to fill the moat in a month!

The Qing army retreated into Mancheng, and Sun Yuanzhang and Wu Liuyi tried to resist stubbornly with Mancheng.

"This city is full of people, I don't know how many days I can defend it!" Wu Liuyi asked worriedly.

Sun Yuanzhang replied helplessly: "As long as Minggou transports the artillery in, we won't be able to hold out for a few days!" ”

Unfortunately, it was really said by Sun Yuanzhang: the Ming army spent seven days transporting artillery and siege weapons to the city. In order to allow the tall nest cars, watchtower cars and ladder cars to enter the city, the Ming army even did not hesitate to spend a lot of manpower and material resources to demolish a large section of the city wall and pave a straight road. At the same time, construction was carried out in the city, demolishing some houses and widening the buildings to ensure that large siege weapons could enter the city and walk.

During these seven days, the Ming army did not attack, but used the buildings in the city to arrange fortifications to prevent the Qing army from coming out to counterattack.

Watching the Ming army construct and prepare for the siege is tantamount to sitting still. Sun Yuanzhang, who was unwilling to wait for the Ming army to attack the city, ordered death squads to launch three counterattacks against the Ming army.

The Ming army hid on the roof, hid in the building, shot with bows and muskets, and the sword and shield hands went to attack the Qing army formation that counterattacked, and the ironclad soldiers rushed out and smashed into the Qing army formation.

More than 200 ironclads were undoubtedly the most powerful weapons in street fighting, followed by musketeers and archers, specializing in shooting Qing soldiers who used heavy weapons such as sledgehammers, axes, maces, and clubs.

Heavy weapons such as sledgehammers, axes, and maces were melee weapons to restrain ironclad soldiers, but these soldiers required great strength and were not easy to train, and there were not many soldiers in the Qing army who used heavy weapons, and they could not pick out one of the more than 100 people. The musketeers and archers of the Ming army stared at the heavy weapons and shots, and after beating the Qing soldiers who used heavy weapons, the ironclad soldiers were invincible.

The ironclad soldiers rushed into the crowd of Qing troops and slashed with impunity.

The machetes, spears, and bows and arrows of the Qing soldiers could not pose any threat to the ironclad soldiers, and often five or six Qing soldiers surrounded an ironclad soldier, slashing and stabbing the guns, but the opponent was unharmed, and could wave the long knife calmly and slash the Qing soldiers one by one. Coupled with the continuous output of firepower from the musketeers and archers in the back, the sword and shield men followed them and rushed to kill, only to see the fallen Qing soldiers, and the Ming army suffered almost no losses.

There was no suspense about the outcome of the fierce battle, and the Qing army that launched a counterattack suffered heavy losses under the blows of the elite Qiongzhou army.

However, the counterattack of the Qing army consumed a lot of physical energy to the Ming army, Fuzhou at the end of September was still hot, and the Ming army that invaded the city was stationed in the sultry Fuzhou city, and the heat wave was rolling, which was uncomfortable. The Qing army came to counterattack, the Ming army was dressed in thick armor to face the battle, a fierce battle was fought, and after the ironclad soldiers were unarmed, the whole person seemed to be fished out of the water.

"I'm tired!"

"I'm dying!"

After three consecutive fierce battles, the ironclad soldiers returned to the camp, and everyone couldn't wait to remove their armor, drink a lot of water, and lie on the ground to rest. If the Qing soldiers go out of the city to counterattack at this time, it will be difficult for the ironclad soldiers to fight again. However, there are no extra Qing soldiers in the city to come out and fight back, and they only have the ability to defend the city.

Seven days later, all the siege weapons of the Ming army were transported into the city.

On the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, the Ming army barracks in Fuzhou City were brightly lit, the officers and soldiers entertained according to the Bo cakes invented by Zheng Chenggong, and the soldiers prepared a sumptuous dinner, so that the officers and soldiers on the battlefield could have a good Mid-Autumn Festival.

The aroma of braised pork, steamed fish, and mooncakes wafted into the city.

The Qing soldiers in the city smelled the fragrance outside and swallowed hard. Compared with the sumptuous Mid-Autumn Festival dinner of the Ming army, the food in the city is quite sufficient, but there is a lack of vegetables and meat, and the key is that there is a lack of drinking water, so it is not easy to cook. Qing Bing smelled the fragrance wafting outside, and his heart was full of sorrow, and they didn't know how long they could live.

On the 19th day of the eighth month of the lunar calendar and the 3rd day of the tenth month of the solar calendar, the Ming army began its attack on Mancheng.

"Siege!" Wang Xinyu gave an order.

More than 300 large and small artillery pieces spewed out dazzling tongues of fire, and a sea of cannonballs smashed into the city.

The earth-shaking artillery bombardment lasted for an hour, and the head of the city was shattered, the female wall and the battlements were smashed to pieces, and there was not a single Qing soldier standing in the city, and all the flagpoles were knocked down.

"Kill! The first person to enter the city will be rewarded with a hundred taels of silver! Wang Xinyu yelled.

All the grassroots officers were cheering up the soldiers: "Whoever kills Wu Liuyi will be rewarded with five hundred silver!" Those who capture Wu Liuyi alive will be rewarded with a thousand taels of silver! Those who kill Sun Yuanzhang will be rewarded with a thousand taels of silver! Those who capture Sun Yuanzhang alive will be rewarded with 2,000 silver! ”

"Da Ming! Wansheng! In the sound of the earth-shattering slogan, more than 2,000 Ming army auxiliaries pushed large ladder trucks, nest cars, watchtowers, heavy rushing vehicles and other large siege tools, and slowly approached the direction of the city wall. More than 3,000 auxiliaries rushed up with shouts and shouts carrying more than 200 improvised ladders, followed by more than 5,000 soldiers and more than 2,000 long-range archers.

At the head of the city, the sound of gong alarms and the shouts of the Qing soldiers sounded.

"Quick! Uptown resists the dogs! Sun Yuanzhang shouted, let the green battalion Qing soldiers, retired Eight Banner soldiers and Minzhuang go to the city, carry all kinds of weapons to defend the city, and also brought in more than ten Franc machine cannons and more than 30 tiger squat cannons brought in from the outer city to the city head with a winch and set up.

"Fire!" The Qing army officer yelled.

More than a dozen small Francophone cannons weighing only a few hundred pounds opened fire, and several solid shells drilled into the attacking Ming army crowd, and a miserable scream sounded when they landed, and flesh and blood flew in the Ming army crowd.

It may be that the Qing army was too hasty, and their shelling was not very accurate, causing too little lethality. That is also a helpless thing, usually the artillery of the Qing army does not dare to be placed at the head of the city, as long as it is placed at the head of the city, it will definitely be destroyed by the artillery of the Ming army. The artillery that was temporarily pulled up at the head of the city did not have a satisfactory hit rate.

Before the Qing army could replace it with a new gun, an overwhelming number of cannonballs flew up from the city, turning all these small cannons into scrap copper and rotten iron.

The Ming army rushed closer, the Qing army's tiger squat cannon fired, and the shotgun caused great damage to the Ming army auxiliaries who were carrying simple cloud ladders to charge, and the dense projectiles penetrated into the crowd, and a large number of auxiliary soldiers spewed blood mist and fell down with a miserable scream.

At present, Wang Xinyu has more than 200 rifled guns in his hands, and more than 200 rifled guns with extremely high accuracy have fired, and the bullets are shot condescendingly, and the bullets are not missing, and a scream suddenly sounded on the city, and the Qing gunners fell one after another.

Immediately afterwards, the archers on the nest car and the watchtower also stretched their bows and arrows, and the compound bow shot the feather arrows out more than a hundred steps, and the feather arrows fell on the city like rain, and the city head was immediately covered with a layer of white reeds, and many Qing soldiers fell down with arrows.

The Ming army auxiliaries carrying the simple ladder put the ladder up to the city, and the soldiers who followed followed held shields and bit short knives in their mouths, quickly climbed up the ladder and rushed to the city.

I have to say that the retired veterans of the Eight Banners in the city, some half-grown bannerman teenagers, and even some bannermen women, are still very brave. They kept shooting feathered arrows, throwing rolling wood and stones, dropping lime bottles, cans of fire oil, and pouring gold juice, bringing certain losses to the besieging Ming army.

Rows of Ming musketeers and archers pushed forward, and shieldmen quickly set up improvised bunkers to protect long-range shooters.

Gunfire roared, arrows fired volleys, and the recalcitrant Qing soldiers at the head of the city fell one after another.

Bombardiers in iron armor rushed out and rushed to the bottom of the city. The height of the city is not very high, but about three zhang. The bombardier is covered in iron armor with a six-petal iron helmet, and only the arms are soft armor. The feathered arrows from the castle pierced the bombardiers, and could do little damage to them.

The bombardier threw it with all his might, and a pound of grenades smoked and flew up to the city.

The Qing soldiers and bannermen at the head of the city were blown up and howled wolves, and the strength of the defense was instantly weakened.

"Kill!" Light-armored sword and shield soldiers armed with shields and short knives took advantage of this opportunity to jump onto the city and slaughter into the crowd of Qing troops.

Those retired veterans of the Eight Banners and the young men of the banner people were still very fierce, and when they saw the Ming army killing the city, they immediately picked up all kinds of weapons and shouted to kill the Ming army. The two sides scuffled together, and the swords and axes slashed into each other's bodies, blooming bright red blood flowers. Regardless of whether the red-eyed Ming army was in front of the white-haired old man of the banner man, or the half-old banner man child, or the banner woman, as long as he had a weapon in his hand, he would cut it down with a knife.

In the other direction, a large ladder gradually approached the city wall.

At the top of the city, rockets like flying locusts rain down all over the city, and the rockets are fired on the large ladder trucks, and only a little flame emerges before they are extinguished by the wet felt and dirt covered by the large ladder trucks. Some of the rockets ignited the wood of the large ladder truck, but the firefighting auxiliaries who followed the ladder truck immediately lifted buckets and splashed buckets of water on them.

Seeing that the rocket could not stop the large ladder truck, Sun Yuanzhang ordered to throw firewood and oil.

Countless firewood and canisters of fire oil were thrown on the top of the city, and then swirling torches were thrown from the city, forming a wall of fire on the road of the large ladder trucks, blocking the way of the large ladder trucks.

"Extinguish the fire!" Wu Pigdan, who was standing on the large ladder truck, shouted.

The auxiliaries who followed the ladder cart immediately rushed out, carrying buckets and sandbags, to extinguish the fire in their path.

Arrows rained down on the city, and the auxiliary soldiers who were fighting the fire were hit by arrows one after another, screaming and falling.

The Ming musketeers and archers stepped forward to suppress the fire at the head of the city and protect the auxiliaries from extinguishing the fire.

The Qing soldiers were shot and wounded heavily, but those retired veterans of the Eight Banners and the young men of the banner people bravely shot arrows and constantly shot the Ming army auxiliaries under the city. However, after a few rounds of feather arrows, the old man and the young man lacked strength after all, and soon their arms were sore, and the arrows shot became softer and softer, and their accuracy became worse and worse.

The bannermen, women, and children all came up and threw lime bottles at the city.

The lime bottles that fell to the ground continued to explode, and the hot lime water splashed on the Ming army auxiliaries who were extinguishing the fire, and a series of heart-rending screams sounded. The tiger cannons and bird guns at the head of the city took advantage of the situation to shoot a dense rain of bullets, and countless auxiliaries fell.

Both sides invested a lot of manpower, and there were countless casualties. The Ming army finally controlled the fire and pushed the large ladder cart up.

Fuel canisters were thrown at the head of the city, torches were thrown, and the ladder cart began to catch fire.

Wu Zhudan, who was standing on the ladder cart, jumped down with the ironclad soldiers and rushed into the city to slash and kill. Braving the raging flames and heat, the ironclad soldiers behind rushed up the ladder and slaughtered the city. The auxiliaries below are desperately trying to extinguish the fire with buckets and wet felt, slowing down the rate at which the ladder truck is burned.

More and more ironclad soldiers jumped onto the city, but the ladder carts could not withstand the burning of the flames and began to shatter and collapse. Although the ladder cart was completely destroyed, it didn't matter anymore, the ladder cart's mission was to send the ironclad soldiers to the city.

The ironclad soldiers behind could not come up, but Wu Zhudan and more than 200 ironclad soldiers were invincible at the head of the city, and they firmly controlled the surrounding city to ensure that other Ming troops could set up simple ladders to enter the city.

At this time, if the Qing army had enough troops and a large number of heavily armed soldiers, it could eliminate the ironclad soldiers who climbed to the top of the city, and let the Ming army pay ten large ladder cars and thousands of auxiliary soldiers in exchange for the city head position to be scrapped. It is a pity that the Qing army is already insufficient, and the elite heavy weapons are even less, and they are simply unable to drive away the Ming army.

In fact, in siege warfare, no matter how the defenders used fire, the ladder cart was still able to send some people to the city. The key point is that large ladder trucks are difficult to build, and there will not be many of them. If the soldiers who ascended the city were wiped out, then all the efforts of the few days would be in vain, which was the principle of Mozi's use of fire to deal with the ladder car.

However, the Qing soldiers could not drive down the Ming army that landed in the city, so the sacrifice of those ladder carts and auxiliary soldiers played a role.

At the city gate, a fierce battle is also going on.

The Ming army protected the rushing car with long-range shooters and approached the city gate, and the rushing car slammed into it again and again. The city continued to smash lime bottles and oil cans, killing and injuring the Ming army auxiliaries who pushed the wooden mallets inside the car to hit the city gate. The Ming army under the city fired fiercely at the head of the city with bows and arrows and muskets.

The city gate has not yet been opened, and at the head of the city controlled by the ironclad soldiers, the fierce general Wang [Fu] Chen took more than a dozen personal soldiers and climbed to the top of the city under the protection of the ironclad soldiers.

After Wang [Fu] Chen surrendered to Wang Xinyu, Wang Xinyu really did not break his promise, and his heaven and earth would bring Wang [Fu] Chen's only son back from the north. As a result, after Wang [Fu] saw his son, he sold his life to Wang Xinyu.

"Kill!" Wang [Fu] Chen waved his spear and smashed into the crowd of Qing troops.

Each of his more than a dozen personal soldiers is an elite, and they are all strong martial arts people trained by Wang [Fu] Chen. This group of people slaughtered into the Qing soldiers, and the flesh and blood flew everywhere they passed, and no one who met the Qing soldiers could resist a round.

Sun Yuanzhang took his own soldiers and brandished a big knife to meet him, but he met Wang [Fu] ministers who were rushing back and forth in the crowd. The two of them just looked at each other, and Wang [Fu] Chen roared, and a shot was stabbed out, piercing Sun Yuanzhang's throat. Only to hear the sound of a spear entering the flesh, Sun Yuanzhang fell on his back, spitting blood out of his mouth. (To be continued.) )