"The Tartars are here with cannons?" Zeng Shirong was taken aback. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

The railway soldiers only had muskets and tools that could be used as cold weapons, and if the Qing army brought artillery, then with the weapons and troops in Zeng Shirong's hands, there was no way to deal with it. The Qing army came with 7,000 men, as well as artillery; There were more than 5,000 railroad soldiers in front, and they couldn't transfer the railroad soldiers behind. Even if all the guards behind were transferred, there would only be more than 3,000 escorts, and they would not be able to defeat the 7,000 Qing troops carrying artillery.

What's more, it is impossible for all the escort teams scattered on the railway line to be transferred, and if they are all transferred, other construction sections will lose long-range fire protection.

"Send a beacon signal, ask the army to help!" Zeng Shirong sighed and said.

In order to ensure the construction of the railway line, the Qiongzhou Army stationed two infantry towns in Jiangbei, a dragoon town, a heavy cavalry battalion and a flying cavalry artillery battalion.

A railroad soldier stretched out his torch to the firewood, and suddenly a raging fire ignited, mixed with fluffy grass and various debris, and the black smoke rose and sent out a signal for help.

Beacons were set up every five miles on both sides of the railway line, and the beacon towers five miles away saw the signal and lit the beacons. The wolf smoke was filled, and the beacon smoke signal soon spread to the Jiangbei Ming Army Central Army camp in Chuzhou.

"There is a beacon smoke signal in Fengyang, about 7,000 Tatars have invaded, and the railway soldiers in front can't stop it! Let's immediately point out the cavalry attack! "The king's [auxiliary] ministers gave the order.

"It will take some time for the cavalry to rush over, so let the last general take the men and horses in a chariot!" Gong Xiaoda invited Ying to fight.

Wang [Fu] Chen nodded: "Just let the Tartars see the power of our iron-armored fire dragon!" ”

The so-called ironclad fire dragon is an ironclad train that was completed not long ago, this train is pulled by two steam locomotives in front and behind, and there are four iron-clad carriages in the middle, each of which is densely packed with shooting holes, and a carriage carries thirty skirmishers armed with rifled guns, in addition, each carriage is also equipped with a rifled gun and four sub-cannons. The rifled gun is housed in a rotatable turret on the roof of the car, which can be rotated on all sides. The sub-mother cannon was inside the compartment and fired outward through the gun door. There were sixteen gunners in the carriage.

The rear-loading rifled gun, which has a very high manufacturing cost and many defects, seems to be unpopular with the artillery of the army division, although the rate of fire of this gun is fast, but it is affected by the current stage of technology, this kind of gun is not reliable, so Wang Xinyu equipped the rifled gun with a steamer. After the ironclad train was built, four rifled guns were equipped.

On the two steam locomotives that tow the ironclad train, each has a main driver, a co-driver, a stoker and four elite infantrymen, each locomotive personnel is equipped with a thunderbolt handgun, and each of the four elite infantry is also equipped with a rifled gun and two double-barreled long guns.

The whole car, plus the chief and deputy commanders, was exactly two hundred.

Gong Xiaoda took 200 soldiers and took an ironclad train, and the rest of the 1,000 infantry took two troop carriers along a section of the railway line that had just been laid, and rushed to the direction of Fengyang.

Heavy cavalry, dragoons, and flying cavalry artillery were fast, but they were not as fast as trains, and infantry on trains would be driven by cavalry on horseback.

Just when the Ming army in Chuzhou was out of the city, the attacking Qing army was launching a frantic attack on the railway line.

The cannon roared, and the six general guns brought by the Qing army spit out tongues of fire in turn, and the shells smashed on the sandbags and wooden fences from time to time, smashing the fortifications made of sandbags and breaking the wooden fences. Occasionally, a shell fell in the crowd of Ming soldiers, and a blood line was drawn in the crowd, and more than a dozen Ming soldiers flew flesh and blood.

However, the ten Tiger Squat Cannons and four light Franc cannons brought by the Qing army failed to exert their power, and the range of these two cannons was too close, and the Qing gunners had just set up the Tiger Squat Cannon and the Light Franc Machine, and they were shot by the elite sharpshooters in the railway soldiers.

The elite sharpshooters in the railway soldiers were all relegated from the Qiongzhou army, some were old, and some were wounded in the legs, so they left the regular army and entered the railway soldiers to serve. These veterans were extremely accurate in their marksmanship, and the rifled guns exerted great power in their hands, and with every shot, a Qing soldier fell.

The Qing soldiers had just lifted the tiger squat cannon up, and when they were erecting the artillery, in front of the Ming army fortifications, behind the wooden fence, there was a gunshot sound, the white smoke rose up, and the rifled gun bullets came from more than a hundred steps away, accurately hitting the Qing gunners.

The Franc cannon, which was not far away, also failed to play a role, and as soon as the Qing army set up the Franc cannon, their gunners were fired upon by rifled gunners of the railway soldiers, and more than a dozen gunners were killed instantly.

However, the general's artillery with a long range was outside the range of the Ming army's sharpshooters, and the Ming army could only watch the Qing army's artillery continue to bombard its sandbag fortifications and wooden fences. If the railroad soldiers were to defend in the fortifications, they could still resist for a while. If they came out of the fortifications and fought face-to-face with the Qing army on the plain, then these railway soldiers could hardly compete with the Qing soldiers.

The six guns of the Qing army fired at a rate of fire at a rate of one minute apart, constantly bombarding the artillery. In the blink of an eye, the fortifications facing the Qing army were smashed to pieces.

The six generals' artillery bombarded for about half an hour, each cannon fired about forty shells, and the fortifications in front were almost completely destroyed, and the Ming army could only retreat, dodging the artillery fire of the Qing army, and using the fortifications behind to resist step by step.

"My lord, such a long railway line, when will we attack like this? I'm afraid I haven't taken it yet, and Minggou's reinforcements are coming! A Qing garrison said to the guerrillas.

The Qing guerrilla nodded: "Shift the artillery to the left flank and bombard the weak flank of Minggou!" ”

Previously, the Qing army attacked from the front along the direction of the railway line, so that the way for the Ming army to retreat was very wide, and if the Qing army wanted to attack along the railway line, it would not be able to get any benefit at all, and the Ming army had a deep depth to use. However, if the Qing army fired on the side of the railway line, it would soon be able to collapse the wooden fence on the side.

"The Tartars have moved to our right flank! It looks like they're going to shell our side! Yu Zhenxing said.

Zeng Shirong's heart contracted, and he knew that he only had a thin layer of wooden fence on his side, which could not withstand the bombardment of the Qing army's artillery at all, and as long as a few rounds of shells came down, a gap could be opened.

"Let the brethren prepare and get ready to kill! We can't sit here and wait to die! Zeng Shirong gave the order.