After another busy day the next day, all the merchant army's horses and supplies crossed the Han River and were stationed in Caidian Town. The army had three regiments, five regiments, two cavalry companies, and one scout company. A total of seven men and horses.
There are more than 1,500 people. There are also more than 1,500 auxiliary soldiers and handymen.
Seeing that the merchant army had crossed the Han River, both Li Dingguo and Sun Kewang felt tremendous pressure, so they temporarily put aside their disputes and divided their forces into two groups to launch attacks on the Caidian Town and Jiangtan positions respectively.
However, Shang Yi was already prepared for this. Without waiting for the troops of the Western Army to arrive, he sent Cheng Jin to lead three regiments to capture Hanyang Prefecture, so that the Western Army could encircle Wei and rescue Zhao.
After Li Dingguo and Sun Kewang learned about it, they were both shocked. Regardless of attacking the merchant army again, they hurriedly returned to rescue the Hanyang Mansion. As a result, they encountered the merchant army's blockade halfway. Shang Yi ordered Luo Yuanbin to lead the fifth regiment from the west.
The army attacked from behind, attacked twice, and defeated the Western army. More than 6,000 troops were disbanded on the spot, and as many as a thousand were captured. Sun Kewang and Li Dingguo had no choice but to take a detour and escape back to Hanyang Mansion, staying behind closed doors.
He sent someone to ask Zhang Xianzhong for help and asked Zhang Xianzhong to send troops across the river quickly.
But the next day, the merchant army launched an attack on Hanyang Mansion.
Since going south, the Merchant Army has won consecutive battles and has been unstoppable. However, although it has conquered many cities, they have basically relied on sneak attacks or the power of the Merchant Army to force the opponent to abandon the city and flee. However, one city was forcibly captured.
There has never been a city before, and Hanyang Mansion will be the first city that the merchant army attacks southward.
At this time, there were still more than 20,000 troops left in the Western Army, which was far more powerful than the Merchant Army. However, after two days of fierce fighting, the Western Army had long been defeated by the Merchant Army and did not dare to go out of the city to fight. Even Li Dingguo
They also lost the confidence to fight against the Merchant Army, so after the Merchant Army's troops arrived at Hanyangfu City, all the Western Army hid in the city, closed the four gates, and stepped up defense.
Hanyang Mansion is located at the angle between the Yangtze River and the Han River. The city wall is also built along the water, so there are two sides facing the water, the southwest side is Hanmen, and the northeast side is Shuimen. The main direction of the merchant army's attack is the west gate. The merchant army
The men and horses set up their formation about three hundred steps away from the city wall. Shang Yi stood on the command car and observed the city wall of Hanyang Mansion with a telescope.
The city wall of Hanyang Mansion is about four feet high and extends horizontally for more than two miles. There is a city tower in the middle of the city gate. There are two horse faces on both sides of the city gate. There are towers in the corners of the city on both sides. Sheep and horses outside the city.
Since the wall has not been repaired for many years, most of it is gone, and only a small part of a few parts is left.
Shang Yi nodded and said to Cheng Jin beside him: "Ignore other places, concentrate all the artillery and fire at the city tower. After the city gate is opened, send the musketeers to rush into the city."
Cheng Jin said: "Yes." Then he turned around and got out of the command vehicle. He immediately ordered the soldiers to prepare artillery.
After a while, two two-thousand-jin Hongyi cannons, two one-thousand-jin Hongyi cannons, three No. 1 Fran cannons, four No. 2 Fran cannons, and three No. 3 Fran cannons belonging to the third regiment
, all six Crouching Tiger Cannons have been deployed. Except for the Crouching Tiger Cannon whose firing range is too short and cannot hit the city wall within the existing distance, the other fourteen cannons have all been adjusted with firing and angles.
Loaded with gunpowder and solid bullets.
The commander of the artillery battalion gave the order, and the gunners of the fourteen artillery pieces immediately lit the fuses.
"Boom-boom-boom-boom-"
With the huge roar, it made people's eardrums hurt. Li Dingguo and Sun Kewang, who were directing the defense on the tower, felt as if the city wall was shaking.
Eight of the fourteen solid bullets hit the city wall, smashing tunnels of different sizes into the city wall, and the edges of the tunnels were covered with cracks. Another four hit the city gate, which shook the city gate with a bang.
There was a thumping sound, causing dust to fall. Although the city gate was made of half-foot-thick wooden boards and covered with iron sheets, there were still a few cracks. And two more fell directly onto the city tower.
The beating only caused the doors and windows of the tower to break and wood chips to fly everywhere. It also killed several soldiers. It also frightened other soldiers on the tower and hid.
Li Dingguo and Sun Kewang glanced at each other. Both of them were shocked by the merchant army's siege tactics. In Li Dingguo's view, the siege should be close to the city wall, set up a ladder or tower truck, and then climb up to attack. It is clear that
Take people to pile up and trade lives for the city. Therefore, siege battles often cause the greatest losses. General generals will try to avoid siege battles. However, the merchant army completely subverted Li Dingguo's traditional concept. The men and horses did not get close to the city wall at all.
, they used artillery fire from a distance, apparently intending to forcefully blow open the city gate. I couldn't help but feel horrified, could a siege be fought like this?
Ever since Yuan Chonghuan won the great victory over Guanning, the Ming Dynasty has always positioned the use of artillery as a weapon for city defense. In fact, Yuan Chonghuan's great victory over Guanning was largely due to the fact that he used artillery to severely damage Nurhaci in this battle.
He died of serious injuries. This was somewhat accidental in itself. But from then on, Yuan Chonghuan himself developed the tactic of "defending the city and using artillery". It also became the principle of artillery use for the Ming Dynasty military, even when Yuan Chonghuan
After his death, this tactical principle did not change.
As a result of this tactic, the Ming Dynasty not only blindly pursued large-caliber heavy artillery in the last two or three decades, but ignored the manufacture, development and application of medium and light artillery and muskets. In fact, it also
The use and development of heavy artillery promoted a strategic misunderstanding.
In fact, the greatest role of heavy artillery is not in defending the city, but rather in attacking the city.
Heavy artillery like the Hongyi Cannon is really powerful. When used in field battles, it is cumbersome and inconvenient to transport. When used for city defense, because black powder is not very effective in this era, even if shotgun is used, its lethality is only
Concentrated in a small area, the effect is indeed limited. And if the attacking party besieges the city for a long time, the Hongyi cannon will be useless.
After Yuan Chonghuan's death, Zu Dashou defended Daling River and Jinzhou in the two battles. Although the Ming army had a large number of Hongyi artillery, the Qing army adopted tactics such as long-term siege, siege but not attack, and siege for reinforcements. As a result,
The result of these two sieges was that Zu Dashou ran out of food and supplies and finally surrendered. As a result, a large number of well-made Hongyi cannons were given to Hou Jin in vain. Instead, they became the most powerful force for the Qing army to attack the Ming Dynasty's fortified city.
weapons.
Because the Hongyi cannon is used for siege, it can give full play to its advantages of long range and high impact. It is used to attack the city tower. The city wall can suppress the resistance at the top of the city, bombard the city gate, and open it for the siege soldiers.
There is no need to spend more lives to fill the gaps in the city. Some cities that originally seemed unconquerable can now be conquered.
In modern wars, since the advent of artillery, there have been many examples of heavy artillery used to defeat enemy defensive positions, city walls, fortresses, etc., and achieve victory. The most famous example is: In World War I, the German army used large The Bertha cannon captured the Liege Fortress in Belgium.
The people of the Qing Dynasty were very clear about this. In the seventh year of Tiancong's reign, Zhu Shichang wrote in a memorial to Huang Taiji: "Since ancient times, firearms have been used for offense and defense, such as shotguns, three-eyed guns, Baizi guns, Folangjis, and generals. The three generals, firing cannons and the like, can be used to defend the city very well. If you attack the city, you must use red cannons." In the Battle of Songjin in the thirteenth year of Chongzhen (1639), and later in the second year of Hongzhi in the Southern Ming Dynasty (1646) In the Battle of Yangzhou and the Battle of Jiangyin, the Qing army was able to breach the city, and the Red Yi artillery played an important role. It can even be said that if the Qing army did not have the Red Yi artillery, it would be difficult to sweep through the Southern Ming Dynasty.
Of course, Shang Yi is familiar with modern battle cases and the use of various weapons. Whether it is offensive or defensive, he pays attention to seizing the initiative. Therefore, when forming the merchant army, he mainly focuses on muskets and small and medium-sized artillery, but he does not give up heavy artillery. .But Shang Yi did not use the Hongyi Cannon as a weapon to defend the city, and improved the Hongyi Cannon's artillery carriage to minimize the difficulty of its transportation, because this big thing was still of great use when attacking the city.
This attack on Hanyang Mansion was a testing ground for Shang Yi to test the use of Hongyi artillery in sieges.
The fourteen artillery pieces spurted out tongues of fire in succession and roared, firing the shells mercilessly at the city walls, towers and gates of Hanyang Mansion. After seven or eight consecutive rounds of bombardment, the city walls were the most hit, and the city gate of Hanyang Mansion was hit the most. The nearby city wall was densely covered with dozens of large, uneven pits, and the cracks on the wall were as dense as a spider web.
The tower was also hit by more than a dozen shellings. Several large holes were made in the walls, and two pieces of the roof were smashed in. The rooms inside the tower were in a mess, and more than 20 soldiers were killed. At this time, the defenders in Hanyang City no longer dared to stand on the tower and retreated to both sides. Even Li Dingguo and Sun Kewang also retreated to the side. The entire tower was almost undefended.
In fact, the main focus of artillery strikes was the city gates. Although the accuracy of artillery in this era was not high, due to the short distance and concentrated targets, there would always be three or four shells hitting the city gates in each round of bombardment. Therefore, After six or seven rounds, the city gate also received more than 20 blows, and four or five depressions appeared on the city gate. If you look at the back of the city gate in the city gate hole, you can find that There were many cracks in the wood on the city gate, and the door bolts were bent and deformed.
Shang Yi has been watching the effects of the bombardment from the command car. He has to say that the Hongyi cannon is indeed a good weapon for siege. He can see clearly that the damage caused by the Hongyi cannon to the city wall is greater than that of the Folang machine gun. Much more. This is because we only have four Hongyi cannons. If there are forty Hongyi cannons firing a salvo, it is not impossible to blast a gap in the city wall. This is the difference between the Firearms Age and the Iron Age.
But now it seems that it is only a matter of time before the city gate is opened, so Shang Yi immediately ordered a battalion of musketeers to advance towards the city gate with tiger squatting cannons, preparing to seize the city gate, while the other The battalion's musketeers fired along the city wall to clear out the defenders on both sides.
"boom--"
There was another loud noise, and the shells fired by the two Hongyi cannons hit the city gate almost at the same time. The already overwhelmed door bolt finally broke, and the Hanyang City gate separated to the left and right.