On the north bank of the Yellow River pontoon bridge in Kaifeng, Wu Sangui camp. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

In the era of cold weapons, summer battles were avoided as much as possible, and in the scorching summer, the Wu army temporarily rested and waited for the autumn to go on the expedition. However, the continuous influx of refugees from the north not only brought pressure on the Wu army in terms of food, but also increased the burden on the Wu army to identify the spies of the Qing army. Mixing spies among the refugees was a consistent practice of the Qing army.

When the Yellow River burst its banks, many Qing army spies were mixed in among the refugees going south, but fortunately, Wu Sangui took strict precautions, such as saying that refugees were not allowed to enter the Wu army camp at will; Refugees are not allowed to cross the Yellow River pontoon bridge to enter Kaifeng City at will. Later, the Qiongzhou Army sent agents to identify and catch many Qing army spies from the refugees.

It was easy to resettle the refugees who burst the embankment of the Yellow River, and another batch of new refugees poured in, which caused Wu Sangui an extraordinary headache.

"Food! Food is the most headache! The logistics and transport lines are stretched too long on land! Our food needs to be transported thousands of miles by land! Extremely expensive on the road! Basically, if you bring one stone of grain over, you will have to consume one stone on the way! That is, two stones of grain have arrived, and only one stone remains! Wu Sangui said with a sad face.

Although it was the Governor of Huguang who helped solve the food problem at present, the food used by the Wu army was provided by Wang Yu. However, long-distance land transportation, even if Wang Yu ordered Zhou Zhaonan to gather a large number of people, it still could not fundamentally solve the food problem.

"It was easy to solve the problem of more than a million refugees, and Qinggou created more than a million refugees! It's really hateful! Gao Dejie said angrily.

"From Kaifeng to Jiangnan, there was originally a waterway to go, but the waterway was controlled by the Tartars! Even if you take the land route to Fengyang, it is only a few hundred miles, but it is impassable! I don't know when your grandson-in-law will be able to take Fengyang. Liu Xuanchu's eyes fell on the map, looking at the map and muttering to himself.

……

The first shell of the "boom" fell on the defense line of the Qing army in Zhuzhen, and the solid shells that landed on the ground splashed a puff of dirt.

"Don't be afraid! Minggou is just opening up an artillery attack! On the Qing army's position, officers at all levels of the Qing army shouted at the top of their voices, trying to suppress the demoralized and panicked Qing soldiers.

The Ming troops arrived yesterday morning, and groups of Ming troops took the train to the railway barracks on the opposite side, and after getting off the train, they immediately expanded the barracks, dug trenches, built various fortifications, and arranged artillery positions. From yesterday morning to this morning, the trains on the opposite railway line have run back and forth for I don't know how many times, each train has brought thousands of people, and tens of thousands of troops have been arranged within 12 hours, which cannot but be said to be the high efficiency of the railway.

"Don't panic! On such a hot day, it is impossible for Ming Dog to attack! The Qing army officer yelled.

Although the officers of the Qing army were tough on their mouths and kept convincing their soldiers that the Ming army was not here to attack, but only to attack their own positions with artillery, they did not know the bottom of their own hearts, and arranged on the opposite side for a day and a night, not only bringing artillery, but also a large number of infantry and cavalry to come, is it just to fire a few cannons and listen to the sound?

A few minutes later, there were a few more cannon shots, and several large iron balls swept across the sky and landed in the Qing army's position.

"Minggou is testing firing, it is estimated that after three more rounds of artillery, there will be a salvo of artillery!" A Qing guerrilla said.

After five rounds of test firing by the Ming army, the official shelling began. A total of 64 new-style front-loading smoothbore guns and more than 200 old-fashioned front-loading smoothbore guns emitted a deafening sound of cannonballs, and rows of shells whistled and fell on the Qing army's positions. The first few rounds of shelling were still solid shells, which smashed on the Qing army's positions, the wooden stakes and deer were shattered, a burst of earth splashed on the earthen city, and the wooden fence on it collapsed.

After a few rounds of shelling, the Ming army switched to flowering shells.

At this time, the flowering shells used by the artillery of the Qiongzhou Army, whether they were new artillery or old-fashioned artillery, had all been replaced with new-style medicine disc fuses, flowering shells with high-power explosives, and all the old-fashioned flowering shells that had been eliminated had been sold to Wu Sangui and Li Laiheng.

Even if it is an old-fashioned front-loading gun, the power of the new flowering shell with a medicine disc fuse is the same as that of a new artillery! The new ultimate front-loading smoothbore gun is nothing more than a faster rate of fire, higher accuracy, and a longer firing range, but whether it is fired with a new gun or an old artillery, the shells are all new shells, and the explosive power of the shells is the same. Moreover, the flowering shells of the Qiongzhou Army are also divided into high-explosive shells used to blow up construction projects and personnel personnel bombs used to kill and injure personnel. The shell of the high-explosive flowering shell is relatively thin, and the charge inside is large; The shell of the personnel personnel bomb is thicker, the charge is small, and it is filled with iron balls to increase the killing effect on personnel.

The artillery shells used in the artillery bombardment of the Qing army fortification group were all high-explosive flowering shells.

The high-explosive flowering bomb with thin skin and filling fell to the ground, and the dazzling fire suddenly turned into a piece, and the sound of violent explosions was incessant, and the whole earth trembled violently as if a strong earthquake had occurred.

Being shelled to this level can not only damage the fortifications of the Qing army, but also have too great a psychological shock to the Qing soldiers. In the modern warfare of later generations, recruits went to the battlefield, and after a few rounds of shelling, it was possible to have a psychological breakdown, and only veterans who had been on the battlefield for a long time could sit peacefully in the anti-artillery hole, listen to the violent explosions, and feel the shaking of the earth without chaos.

Most of the Qing soldiers here were new recruits, and they had never seen the power of the new flowering shells. Even the veterans of the Qing army had never seen such a density of flowering shells bombarded. After several rounds of shelling, many Qing soldiers completely collapsed, and some people went crazy, regardless of the obstruction of others, jumped out of the trenches, yelled like crazy, and ran between the trenches and trenches.

The industrial production of sulfur and nitrate has begun, so that the cost of the Ming army's new artillery shells has decreased, and the new explosives are no longer regarded as luxury goods as before, and are only used at critical moments.

I don't know how many shells poured down, the artillery of the Ming army temporarily stopped shelling, the gunners lifted buckets and poured water on the guns, and some gunners poured water into the barrels to cool down the cannons.

"Thank goodness the cannon is going to cool down!" The Qing guerrillas saw this scene through a telescope.

"Minggou looks like he's going to attack!" A Qing garrison said.

Looking in the direction of the Qing garrison's finger, I saw that the Ming army had already lined up in formation, and groups of musketeers wearing red military uniforms and rattan armor outside came out of the line, walking towards the Qing army's position step by step. On both flanks of the line of infantry, many stragglers in green uniforms pulled away from the straggler line and quickly approached.