"Sir, please arrange the defense of the city immediately. Please open the arsenal and distribute armors and firearms," said Cao Xiu of Bingbei Road.
Cui Erjin's heart skipped a beat. He didn't know what was going on in the arsenal. Huang Yuntai was famous for scrapping the land.
"First pass the order, let the Tianjin left guard and Tianjin right guard immediately gather troops and horses to come to the rescue. Order the security guards in all streets to gather the people and go to the city to guard." Cui Erjin calmed down and made arrangements.
Everyone feels relieved and the adults can just calm down, but they are afraid that if he gets anxious, everyone below will be panicked. Then the situation will be out of control.
"The others and I will go to the arsenal to have a look."
I don’t know what’s going on with the arsenal, so it’s best to open it in front of everyone, so as not to make it unclear.
With a burst of gritted teeth, the arsenal door was slowly pushed open.
"Ouch!" Everyone took a breath of air.
It was empty inside, not a hair on it.
Everyone felt despair, and the war started immediately. The arsenal was actually empty. There were 3,000 bows in the ledger, 300,000 armor-piercing arrows, 15,000 spears, 7,000 waist knives, and 60 tiger squatting cannons.
Seven guns, eighteen cannons, three hundred three-eyed muskets. Hundreds of tigers running together and arrow carts, seventy. One thousand, five hundred sets of armor, twenty-seven thousand four hundred sets of mandarin duck war coats, and seven fat coats.
Thousands of sets.
"Immediately recruit all the blacksmiths in the city, immediately make spear heads and equip all the strong men in the city, and prepare rolling wood and thunder stones." Governor Cui said through gritted teeth.
At this moment, he can only treat a dead horse as a living horse doctor.
The commander of the Tianjin Guard looked at the governor who was on the verge of going berserk and hesitated as to whether he should say anything.
"If you have anything to say, just say it here," Governor Cui said angrily.
"Sir Futai, the officers and soldiers of the Tianjin Guard have not been paid their salaries since the Spring Festival. They have been in arrears for half a year. You see there is going to be a war soon, how much can you pay?"
The unspoken rule of the Ming Dynasty was that in addition to daily food, soldiers would only actively train after receiving military pay. If they did not receive military pay, they would sit back and do nothing. When going to war, they must have their starting pay before setting off. Only when they get it can they be willing to leave.
When you reach the battlefield, your salary will usually be doubled. There will also be additional rewards for your gains.
Now that there is so much unpaid salary, I'm afraid the soldiers will cause trouble if they don't pay part of it. After all, they have been left to fight to the death. It would be too much to not pay back the money owed, because in the cold weapon era, there were huge casualties in wars, so it was impossible to do so.
Well, there is no need to pay back wages.
"How much money is left in the treasury?" Governor Cui felt his eyes turning black.
"Sir, there are still thirteen thousand taels left," the Huke official said.
Governor Cui sighed and said: "There are three thousand people in the city, and each person is paid three taels of silver. No more. The governor's office will not be able to operate without any money."
There's nothing much the commander can say. It's just a small amount of money. Let's pay it first and then talk about it. It's better than nothing.
Yang Fan looked at the closed west gate of Tianjin City and nodded expressionlessly. Then he imitated the protagonist in Akira Kurosawa's movie and waved his fan.
Zhang Gedao immediately shouted, "The attack has begun, the engineer squadron, with the shield vehicle taking the lead, move forward."
There was no moat at the west gate, only a city wall. Yang Fan ordered some of the boats at the pier to be dismantled, and wooden planks were nailed around the carriage to make a cylindrical shield to withstand arrows shot from the city wall.
The car was filled with fertilizer explosives. The power of this explosive could reach 60% of that of Phentai. This power was very terrifying in the face of the black fire pharmaceuticals of this era.
The soldiers were ready to push under the city wall and blow it open.
As a fire cover, six Franco machine guns were loaded with shotgun shells and aimed at the city head to begin bombardment.
Since not many people came, they did not bring many heavy weapons, only the light Folan cannon.
The Fo Lang machine gun came from the sea, and it was perfect for the Japanese pirates.
Six Franco machine guns mounted on wheeled gun mounts were slowly pushed forward and stopped a hundred and fifty meters away from the city wall.
Boom boom boom!
The six small cannons opened fire in sequence.
The dense iron sand completely sealed the entrance to the crenels. If the defenders dared to show their heads, they would be attacked by iron sand and steel beads.
The small Folan cannon has a range of 300 meters, and the shotgun has a range of 150 meters, which are better than bows and arrows and muskets. It also has a fast rate of fire and can fire six rounds per minute.
This kind of primitive breech-loaded cannon can be fired continuously as long as the gun is constantly replaced. And because the opening of the rear barrel is huge, it allows front and rear ventilation and good cooling effect. Generally, the red cannon cannot fire too much and will heat up and ignite the propellant.
Differently, the Folan cannon has excellent heat dissipation performance.
Qian Ning, a householder from the west gate, was so frightened that he crouched under the crenellations of the city wall and did not dare to move. The rate of fire of these Folan machine guns was too fast. It only took a few breaths for one shot to be fired. The few brave soldiers just now, after offering rewards themselves, showed up.
Use your bow and arrow to shoot the Japanese pirates on the opposite side.
The result left Qian Ning dumbfounded. He saw the armor-piercing arrow hit a gunner, but it was actually bounced away by the Japanese armor stomach on his body.
The situation on the battlefield was changing rapidly. Before they could recover, the shells from the Fran machine gun were hitting their heads and faces. A dozen soldiers were killed and placed on the crenellation. No matter how they kicked or beat them, they would not be able to recover.
Never show your head again.
Hearing the rumble of artillery fire under the city and feeling the shudder of the female wall he was relying on as the shells hit him again, Qian Ning was so frightened that his liver and gallbladder split apart. He was a hereditary member of a hundred households and had never been on the battlefield.
Among the three guards in Tianjin, it is common for him to be like this. The officers and soldiers in the guard are not good at fighting, but they are very good at selling vegetables, bathing, pedicure, carpentry, and masonry.
Soldiers have been doing these things for two hundred years. After all, they have to support their families in Hukou. They rarely train. Anyone who dares to fight is considered courageous.
The garrison has long become no different from the common people, except that they have a military establishment.
Seeing the Ming army suppressing both sides of the city gate, the shield chariot began to accelerate, crossing the shallow trench without water, the soldiers finally pushed the heavy shield chariot into the city gate hole.
The corps commander Xiang Ming personally checked the explosives and fuses. After confirming that there were no problems, he lit the fuses, then turned around and ran away with four soldiers. After escaping thirty meters, he jumped into the dry moat ditch.
According to the knowledge usually taught, open your mouth wide, cover your ears, and squat on the ground with your toes on the ground.
Yang Fan repeatedly emphasized that engineers responsible for blasting should enter hidden areas to hide according to the sequence of ignition. But they must not lie on the ground.
Because the explosives used are very strong, there is a risk of shattering your internal organs if you lie on the ground.
In the distance, Sakurai Momo said: "Keep your eyes open. This is a rare opportunity to learn. Let's see how Yang Jun conquered the fortified city."
Before he finished speaking, a white light flashed in the distance, and then the ground shook. The entire west gate seemed to rise several meters upward, and then a loud noise came.
"The Romance of Fairy Wood"
Some people who were close were even so shaken that they fell to the ground.
The earth, wood, sand and stones rose up, and the entire city gate jumped up again, then fell apart and turned into countless fragments, flying all over the sky.
The pirates and members of the cult were dumbfounded. The power of this explosion refreshed their understanding. It was the first time they saw such powerful gunpowder.
When the smoke dissipated, the entire west gate ceased to exist and turned into a rubble field. The vertical city walls collapsed into slopes on both sides.
Yang Fan took off the protective device on his ears and felt that his ears were still buzzing. It seemed that he would have to stay farther away next time. This kind of blasting was too harmful to the ears.
"Let's go into the city. The soldiers in this area have been shocked and can't stand up."