Although the Pili Rockets made by Qingting still had many shortcomings, they still caused a serious blow to the merchant army. Because the merchant army was unprepared for this, they never expected that the Qing army would even use the Pili Rockets, and were immediately caught off guard.!
After the thunder rocket fell into the artillery position and exploded, it not only caused considerable casualties to the artillery, but also detonated a lot of artillery ammunition. This is also related to the general care of the merchant army. According to the artillery manual, the ammunition of the artillery must be placed in the ammunition box, sealed and stored and moved. Moreover, after the ammunition fired was taken out, the ammunition box must be closed to reduce the chance of being accidentally triggered.
However, this standard requirement is not strictly enforced in combat, because in general battles, the firepower of the merchant army can occupy an overwhelming advantage and is difficult to be threatened by the Qing army. Moreover, the Qing army used solid bullets and could not ignite gunpowder. Therefore, soldiers often ignore this requirement in order to save trouble. But in this battle, they finally suffered.
As a result, the attack of the Thunder Rockets triggered a series of explosions in the artillery positions of the Merchant Army, causing the Merchant Army to lose more than 800 soldiers, most of which were artillery systems and more than 40 medium-sized artillery pieces. It can be said that the losses were heavy. Ajignikan finally breathed a sigh of relief. In the past, only the Qing army was beaten by the Merchant Army, but now it is finally the Merchant Army's turn to suffer a lot.
Luo Yuanbin, who was commanding the battle in the back formation of the Merchant Army, was also shocked because the losses were secondary. Guan Jian was psychologically shocked. In the past, when the Merchant Army and the Qing army fought, weapons often had a great advantage. Now the Qing army has significantly shortened the gap in this regard, so he did not dare to continue to attack the city and hurriedly ordered the withdrawal of troops.
That night, Luo Yuanbin also recruited military officers from the brigade level to discuss the next battle. However, the merchant army at this time had been baptized enough by enough war. The officers calmed down first and carefully analyzed today's battle, pointing out that the Qing army's weapons were not necessarily stronger than the merchant army, but they suddenly used them and caught the merchant army off guard. With the current strength of the military army, as long as they were careful, they would not have to be afraid of the Qing army at all. Therefore, everyone unanimously decided to attack Xuyi again tomorrow and must find this face back.
On the second day, Luo Yuanbin indeed led his troops to attack Xuyi again. This time, the merchant army did not dare to be at all. At the beginning, all thirty-two heavy artillery used flower bullets and fired fifty thunder rocket launchers in one breath. Although the Qing army fought back desperately, their firearms were far from the merchant army in terms of quantity and quality, so the firepower was completely suppressed by the merchant army. Only the fire was hit near the city walls of Xuyi, and the smoke was filled with smoke and explosions continued. The Qing army also suffered hundreds of soldiers.
Seeing that he finally suppressed the firepower of the Qing army, Luo Yuanbin ordered some artillery to push forward and use solid bullets to bombard the city walls.
Although the Qing army could not match the merchant army's firepower, it still strictly guarded the city wall. Now the Qing army has enough experience. When the merchant army used artillery fire to bombard the city wall, all the Qing soldiers hid behind the battlements or the city wall, minimizing their losses. Once some walls were broken and collapsed, they would immediately block them with mud and sand bags that had been prepared earlier, without giving the merchant army any opportunity to take advantage of.
The artillery bombardment lasted for more than two hours. Although more than ten gaps were blown up in Xuyi's city wall, as soon as each gap was blown up, the Qing army soldiers braved the artillery fire of the merchant army and used mud and sand bags to block the gap. This also made Luo Yuanbin feel very embarrassed. If he continued to fight like this, he might have blown up all the city walls in Xuyi, which would not work.
However, using mud and sand bags to block the gap is not a real city wall after all, and it still has very obvious defects. Because it is a very obvious slope, the soldiers can still enter the city from the slope. Therefore, Luo Yuanbin decided not to wait, but immediately launched a strong attack. So he sent a regiment to launch an attack on Xuyi.
Because last night, the merchant army had made sufficient preparations for the increase in the firepower of the Qing army. Therefore, after Luo Yuanbin's order was issued, soldiers of a regiment were distributed in scattered lines, holding rifles, approaching the city walls of Xuyi. This way, they could minimize their losses.
But at this moment, the Qing army actually used new weapons, and the city wall made huge bombardment sounds, and dozens of black shadows also flew up from the city wall, landing in a parabolic motion trajectory, falling outside the city. After landing, the "boom" continuous explosions, and the soldiers of the merchants near the explosion center were all blown to the ground and died.
Luo Yuanbin and other officers also felt nervous when they saw that the Qingjun actually used the flowering bullet.
In fact, it is not new to the Qing army's flowering bomb, because during the Nanjing Battle, the Qing army used the flowering bomb, but it was fired with the bomb after igniting the lead of the bomb. However, the catapult was too huge and it was very inconvenient to move. It was easy to become a target of artillery, and the distance was very limited, no more than 200 steps at most. Therefore, using the catapult to shoot the flowering bomb, which poses no great danger to the merchant army on most battlefields.
But this time it was different, because the Qing army was very obvious, and it was firing a flowering bullet with cannons. Therefore, Luo Yuanbin and other officers also hurriedly picked up the telescope and carefully observed the artillery used by the Qing army towards the city walls of Xuyi.
Through the telescope, the officers of the merchant army could see clearly that the barrel size of this type of artillery is very short, generally not more than two feet, but the caliber is very thick, one foot, and it is not fired at a small elevation angle like a normal artillery, and it is at least 45 degrees of elevation angle.
Other officers did not understand what kind of artillery the Qing army used. It was hard to say that it was a self-created artillery by the Qing army, but only Luo Yuanbin knew that this was a thunder cannon that had been used by the Ming Dynasty long ago. Because before joining the Merchant Army, Luo Yuanbin was an artillery soldier of the Ming army, so he knew this kind of artillery.
The thunder cannon was a type of artillery used by the Ming army to fire flowering bullets. In fact, it was to ignite the leads of the bomb, put them into the cannon cavity, and fire them out in the form of a projectile. In fact, it was an early mortar cannon, and later famous rutless cannons belonged to this type. During the War of Aid to Korea during the Wanli period, they were also brought to the Korean battlefield by the Ming army. Later, they were imitated by North Korea and named "Flying Thunder and Thunder", which played a great role in the Battle of Qingchang.
Because the merchant army had used flowering bullets on the battlefield, and throwing flowering bullets with stone throwers was obviously not a long-term solution, Dorgon also ordered the Qing court craftsmen to solve the technical problems of flowering bullets as soon as possible and promised a heavy reward. Although the flowering bullet technology had been lost in Beijing at this time, some craftsmen still remembered that there was a thunderbolt cannon used to fire flowering bullets. And North Korea seemed to have this technology. So Dorgon immediately ordered the North Korean Ku to send craftsmen to make flying thunders to Beijing to help the Qing court create flying thunders.
Now North Korea is already a vassal of the Qing court, so of course he dare not refuse. He immediately selected twenty craftsmen and came to Beijing to help the Qing court cast thunder artillery.
The first batch of thunderbolt cannons made by the Qing court, with a total of fifty. Because thunderbolt cannons use curved fire, the range is not too far, about 200 to 300 steps, which is slightly longer than the range of a stone thrower, but it is lighter. The weight of a thunderbolt cannon is only about 200 kilograms, and two or three soldiers can move it. It is very flexible, so it is much easier to use than a stone thrower. And this time, on the Xuyi battlefield, the Qing army also used its own flowering bullets for the first time to attack the merchant army.
However, the Qing army had only thirty thunder artillery pieces, and the attacking teams of the merchant army were also very scattered. Therefore, the Qing army's flowering bullets were not only scared the merchant army, but the actual lethality was not great. However, when the merchant army rushed to within fifty steps from the city wall, they encountered this attack on Xuyi and the real fierce resistance.
The firepower network formed by the Qing army's 3,000 musketeers and 3,000 archers was not as good as the merchant army, but it was enough to block the merchant army's breakthrough route. At the same time, it could also cause a large number of casualties to the merchant army.
Although the range of the Merchant Army's rifle was the Qing army, the Qing army now hid behind the city wall or bunker. When both sides fired at each other, the Merchant Army could not cause much damage to the Qing army. Moreover, the Qing army could also use various artillery to attack the Merchant Army's offensive troops. Therefore, when they wanted to break through Xuyi, they still had to approach the city wall and conduct a strong attack.
In the past, the merchant army basically did not engage in many conflicts with the opponents on the city wall, and directly used artillery to bombard the city wall and then rushed into the city. But now the enemy also used a large number of firearms and stubbornly stationed the city wall to fight. This was the first time the merchant army experienced such a battle and lacked such combat experience.
Although the soldiers of the Merchant Army played very bravely and braved the firepower of the Qing army without fear of death, they still fell one after another during the attack. Although some soldiers rushed to the city wall, the Qing army's musketeers and archers were stationed in every gap in the city wall. They blindly rushed towards the gap, which made the Qing army's defense highly targeted. They just had to defend a few gaps with all their strength. The Merchant Army could not attack the city at all, but instead caused a large number of casualties to themselves.
Seeing that the battle situation was too unfavorable to the Merchant Army, Luo Yuanbin continued to attack, but he was abandoning his troops in vain, so he had to order to temporarily withdraw his troops. In this battle, the Merchant Army paid a total of 1,351 soldiers to be killed in battle, and another 513 were injured. The Qing army suffered 722 casualties and 342 injuries. But there was still no way to deal with Xuyi.