"Yes, Commander, let's just stand firm and not fight back. The Qinglu heavy artillery position has moved forward twice today. The cannons fired are more accurate and more powerful than before. Please order the Commander to fire back!"

After Pan Xi finished talking about the danger of the East City being breached, Liu Zhongjin, who took over from Jin Yukui to direct the deployment of heavy artillery on the East City Wall, also stood up, bowed to Yang Zhen, and then asked Yang Zhen to order the firing of artillery as soon as possible.

Pan Xi came forward to speak out, which was something Yang Zhen expected, because Pan Xi had been in the army since he was a child and was in Yang Zhen's team, and was a direct descendant of Yang Zhen.

As long as he thinks something should be said face to face, no matter what the occasion and no matter what the impact, he will say it in front of Yang Zhen, and Yang Zhen is used to it.

But Liu Zhongjin, a general who had surrendered to the Tatars, had such a change, which surprised Yang Zhen, but he was also very happy at the same time.

This shows that the general who surrendered from the two Tatars has begun to stand on the stand of Jinhai Town, the stand of the Eastern Expeditionary Army, and at the same time, he also stands on the stand of his own people and does not presume to consider the problem.

Yang Zhen used to be very hesitant about whether to promote and use people who had served as Tatars in his own team.

Because after these people have become Er Tatars, their chances of becoming Er Tatars again are much greater than other people, and their bottom line in loyalty will be much lower. After all, they have either been greedy for life or afraid of death, or have been begged by their sellers.

I was honored to be a second Tatar.

However, Yang Zhen could not kill all the Tatars who had been captured before.

Especially for those who have some skills, it would be too wasteful to use them.

When expanding the artillery barracks, Yang Zhen faced such a problem. Although Yang Shen was trustworthy, he was only one person after all. Even with three heads and six arms, he could not command an increasingly large artillery team.

It was at this time that Liu Zhongjin, a figure who had served as the Qinglu Zhenglan Banner Han Army Wu Zhen Chao Ha Ying Niu Lu Zhangjing, entered Yang Zhen's field of vision.

Many of the heavy artillery in the newly built artillery regiment under Yang Zhen's command were snatched from Qing prisoners.

Liu Zhongjin originally commanded this kind of heavy artillery, and participated in the casting of General Tianyou's heavy artillery. Of course, he was very familiar with this kind of heavy artillery. Wouldn't it be a waste to leave such people unused?

So Yang Zhen disbanded the Fourth Prison Battalion that was under his command and placed him in the artillery regiment camp commanded by Yang Shen.

In the past few days, Yang Zhen took advantage of Jin Yukui's usefulness at the west gate and asked him to come to the east gate and stand alone.

However, it is a pity that Yang Zhen, a time traveler, has not completely changed his thinking habit of pretending to be a pig and eating a tiger. They are not allowed to fire back at will. Instead, they are required to save ammunition and firepower first and wait until the Qing infantry rushes into the city.

when used in large quantities.

Yang Zhen's intention had been made clear to Qiu Zhenhai, the commander-in-chief of Dongcheng's defense, so at this moment, Qiu Zhenhai did not stand up to express his different opinions. Instead, Pan Xi and Liu Zhongjin, the two pillars of Dongcheng's defense, stood up and spoke.

.

Of course, Pan Xi and Liu Zhongjin were not the only ones who were worried about the continuous bombardment by the Qing Dynasty heavy artillery outside the city. Liu Lin, whose garrison was near the newly built city wall, was also worried.

After the targets of Qinglu's bombardment were clear, he expressed his concerns more than once to Qiu Zhenhai, who was in charge of Dongcheng's defense affairs, but Qiu Zhenhai kept using Yang Zhen's orders to suppress him.

Today Yang Zhen came in person. He met Pan Xi and Liu Zhongjin and the two young generals talked, so he couldn't help but speak.

"The governor, General Pan, and General Liu are right. If the heavy artillery fire of the Qing Dynasty continues, within a day or two, the newly built city wall will inevitably collapse. Once that part collapses, the Qing Dynasty army will rush into the city.

, then our city will be in danger!"

Of course, Liu Lin's words contained a little bit of selfishness in them.

After all, the newly built city wall was near their garrison. Once it was really broken, his soldiers and horses would be the first to bear the brunt, and it would be his soldiers and horses who would be responsible for closing the gap.

When he thought that he might have to lead the imperial troops under his command and face the Qing Dynasty horse infantry that surged in after the city was broken, Liu Lin's little heart began to beat fast.

Back then, he had seen how fierce the Qing Dynasty's horse and infantry troops were. Correspondingly, he also knew very well the capabilities of the soldiers under his command now.

If Cui Xiaoyi, Cai Menheng, Che Liliang and others still led troops and obeyed his orders, then he would not be as worried as he is now.

But Cui Xiaoyi and others had already led their team to leave the city for some time.

At the same time, based on the behavior of Liu Lin's troops who had defected when Yang Zhen broke into the city, once the Qing captives won and entered the city, they would not reap any of his good fruits.

Yang Zhen saw Liu Lin also standing up and saying such words. After thinking about it for a moment, he understood what he was afraid of, so he smiled, nodded first, and then said to everyone:

"I understand everything you said. The reason why I didn't let you launch a large-scale counterattack before was mainly due to two considerations: on the one hand, it was to reduce consumption and save ammunition, so that our ammunition can be used at critical moments.

The key point. On the other hand, it was to show weakness to the Qing captives and to mislead the Qing captives' horse infantry to launch an siege as soon as possible.

"Since you all feel that the Qing Dynasty heavy artillery continues to use its power and our newly built city wall is about to collapse, then the Qing Dynasty troops outside the city must have realized this. In this case, perhaps the Qing Dynasty horse infantry will attack the city.

It’s very close.”

After giving some brief explanations, Yang Zhen paused for a moment and saw everyone nodding in silence, apparently acquiescing to his judgment, so he continued:

"In the past two days, the targets of the Qing Dynasty's heavy artillery bombardment were the Waiweng City at the Tangshan Gate in the West City, and the other was the newly built city wall in the East City. This also shows that the Qing Dynasty's next key direction for launching the horse infantry siege is in

These two places.

"To be honest, I'm not too worried about the West City side, because even if the outer wall of the Wengcheng is completely destroyed, there is still the main wall inside to rely on, and we can still be condescending. But here in the East City -"

At this point, Yang Zhen stopped talking, listening to the rumble of cannons outside the city, and the muffled sound of cannons hitting the wall from a distance to the south, and silently thought about countermeasures.

Yang Zhen did not want to fight on two fronts, especially he did not want the urn outside Tangshan Gate to be destroyed and the east wall to be breached at the same time. Once this happened, all his previous efforts would be self-defeating.

Before Yang Zhen came to the Jiangmen Gate of the East City Gate, he had just visited the Tangshan Gate of the West City Gate and personally inspected the situation of the urn outside Tangshan Gate amidst the roar of cannons.

The situation in the urn city outside Tangshan Gate is very dangerous. Under the continuous bombardment of Qing Dynasty heavy artillery day and night, the semicircular urn city protruding outside Tangshan Gate is already riddled with holes and is on the verge of collapse.

If the Qinglu's heavy artillery still does not stop after dark, then the outer urn of Tangshan Gate will most likely not be able to survive the night.

However, the situation in the West City is better than that in the East City after all, because even if the outer urn of Tangshan Gate collapsed, the main wall of the West City is still there.

Facing the Qing horse infantry who came to attack the city, the defenders of Xicheng still had the advantage of being at a commanding height.

Therefore, after Yang Zhen's inspection, he only ordered the removal of the forts on the urn city outside the west gate and the defenders above and below the semicircular urn city, and ordered them to retreat and defend and mainly guard the inner gate inside the urn city. No other adjustments were made to the defense.

.

The meaning is very obvious, that is, be prepared for the barbican outside the west gate to be completely destroyed by Qinglu heavy artillery, and wait for the Qinglu horse infantry to attack.

However, the situation here in the East City was different. The Qing Dynasty's heavy artillery did not focus on Zhenjiang Gate, but instead aimed at the weak points that had been tested in the previous bombardment, that is, the newly built city wall.

Once the newly built city wall was defeated and breached, the Qing captives could immediately enter the Zhenjiang Fort.

"Liu Zhongjin!"

"The humble position is here!"

Yang Zhen finally made a judgment and decision after thinking silently for a while under the eager anticipation of the generals.

"Your artillery unit, adjust your deployment and aim all your heavy artillery at the Qinglu artillery array on the Chengdong River. After calibration, you can start a full counterattack! You must force the Qinglu artillery array to retreat and buy time for us to repair the city!"

"I humbly obey my orders!"

Liu Zhongjin had been waiting for Yang Zhen's order for a long time, and immediately accepted the order with high morale.

"There are also sky cannons. Since the place where the Qinglu heavy artillery will bombard is already very clear, there is no need to hide them. The main force of the sky cannons deployed in the east city has been transferred to the top of the city. Once the Qinglu horse infantry comes to attack, they can

Immediately fire from a high position and bombard them!"

"I humbly obey my orders!"

Liu Zhongjin was even happier after hearing the second order given to him by Yang Zhen, and he immediately accepted the order loudly.

Ever since he was ordered by Yang Zhen to be assigned to serve in the First Artillery Regiment Battalion of the Marching East Advance Army, he had already seen the power of the explosive shells used by the sky cannon, and knew that the sky cannon could be fired in a straight direction, which was beneficial to close combat.

As a man who once captured the Qing Dynasty's Zhenglan Banner Han Army's Wu Zhen Chao Ha Ying Niu Lu Zhangjing, he naturally knew the tremendous power of such a sky-high cannon in close offensive and defensive operations.

Thinking of the power of those explosive bombs to explode a large area, Liu Zhongjin even began to hope that the Qinglu horse infantry would attack the city early so that he could achieve great success in one fell swoop.

After talking about the arrangements for the artillery led by Liu Zhongjin, Yang Zhen turned to Pan Xi without stopping.

"Pan Xi!"

"The humble position is here!"

"The newly built city wall is the most important part of the defense of the East City. This governor has entrusted this important task to you. After the Qingluo bombardment on Waihua Island slows down, we will send people overnight to repair it and try to make it last longer!

"

"I understand the humble position!"

"Of course, you must also be prepared for that section of the city wall to be knocked down. You must be prepared both above and below the city. Your grenadiers have a total of three sentries. Two sentries must be deployed on the city and one sentry inside the city. Once that happens,

A section of the city wall has been breached, you must make every effort to intercept it!"
Chapter completed!