Chang Qingyun felt very scared, and the urge to urinate seemed to be rising in his crotch. Chang Qingyun forced himself to hold back, but his legs were so weak that he could no longer stand. Chang Qingyun suddenly recalled the fear he felt when Chengmai was defeated. Suddenly, his forehead
There was a chill, and he couldn't help but think of the humiliation of being forcibly shaved off by the Australians. Suddenly, a terrible thought came to his mind, would this humiliation happen again?
He looked around in panic. As a staff member, he had no servants or soldiers to use. A few servants could only serve him on weekdays. They would never work for him in times of crisis. It was really hard to trust him with his life.
Finally, Yang Erdong did not forget the words "If Master Chang has any good intentions, you are the only one to ask!" He quickly dragged Chang Qingyun and ran all the way. There was a row of hidden soldier holes dug under the city wall - at that time, the city was built to prevent the enemy from long-range projection.
The awareness of weapons led to the construction of masonry-reinforced caves on the inside of the wall. The defending soldiers could avoid the cannons and arrows of the attacking enemies in the cave, and they could also rest inside, which was equivalent to a barracks -
Pulled him into the hidden soldier cave.
The dull sound of the artillery continued, and you could feel the city wall shaking under the bombardment of the artillery shells. The flame of the oil lamp in the alcove flickered amidst the vibration. Gradually, artillery shells crossed the city wall and landed in the city. The cannonballs shot into the city were dragged behind
The white smoke made a sharp whistling sound. The moment it hit the house, it was smashed to pieces. When it hit the street, it immediately raised a piece of dirt and gravel. If it hit a person, it could break an arm or a leg, or even if it hits a person,
It was torn in half, and the flesh and blood flew everywhere.
Chang Qingyun and his servants sat on the ground in the Tibetan Soldier Cave, surrounded by some officers, soldiers and strong men guarding the city. They all held their heads in their hands, covered their ears, and closed their eyes tightly, as if this could suppress the great fear caused by the shelling.
The iron ball with sizzling sparks fell from the sky, followed by a flash of fire, and the blast wind caused by the violent explosion rushed into the Tibetan Soldier Cave, extinguishing the oil lamps on the wall, and a burst of screams, curses and wailing immediately erupted from the cave.
Chang Qingyun huddled tightly against the wall. At this moment, he could no longer feel the urge to urinate. He just hoped that this terrible time would pass quickly.
The city wall of Wuzhou was like a sand castle, slowly crumbling under the continuous bombardment. The city wall was filled with smoke and flickering with fire. Because the smoke fired by the artillery was too thick, Zhang Dapao ordered to stop shooting two hours after the cannon started.
.On the one hand, it cools the body tube. On the other hand, it allows the smoke to disperse for easier observation.
More than ten minutes later, the smoke on the city wall and the smoke on the artillery position dissipated. Zhang Dapao used a telescope to observe the Wuzhou city wall after the first round of shelling, and read out two lines of poems taught to him by veteran Zhang Bolin:
"The wind is blowing, the clouds are flying, and the cannons are firing!"
The results of the first round of shelling were good. The entire south wall of Wuzhou City could no longer be called complete. The city tower had been destroyed by shells, leaving only a ruin. The power of the 130mm cannon was even greater. Every time it fired, it would destroy the city.
A large chunk of the city wall was blasted away, leaving countless small gaps.
The original defense facilities on the city wall such as towers, nests, horse faces, parapets, and crenellations were riddled with holes under artillery fire. These traditional masonry fortifications were already very fragile after the invention of artillery.
The biggest problem is the city wall itself.
Most of the city walls in ancient China were built of rammed earth for thousands of years. The thickness is at least 3 to 4 meters. The rammed walls are very thick and strong and can last for many years as long as they are properly maintained. Most of the city walls in the Ming Dynasty were built during the Zhu Yuanzhang era.
, not only did most of the repairs last until the late Qing Dynasty, but after the city bricks were removed, it is still a continuous mountain of dirt after a hundred years.
For such a city wall, it is impossible for traditional smoothbore artillery to directly open holes in the wall. Even during the Revolution of 1911, when the Jiangsu and Zhejiang Revolutionary Army attacked Nanjing, they mostly used various small and medium-caliber rifled field guns equipped by the new army in the late Qing Dynasty.
These artillery pieces had no effect on the Nanjing city wall. In the end, heavy fortress artillery was dragged from Jiangyin Fortress to blow down the city wall, forcing Zhang Xun's braided army to abandon the city and leave.
The damage to the south wall of Wuzhou seemed miserable. There were many gaps, but no section had collapsed. Zhang Dapao was not too surprised. When he was in the gunnery training class, the instructor mentioned
This point: Don't underestimate the thickness of the city wall. Looking at the field artillery of the Fubo Army, or even the artillery equipped by the siege artillery, no kind of cannon can easily destroy the rammed earth city wall.
Even if they had the Navy's 130mm rifled cannon, it would be really difficult to break through the city wall. However, the artillery fire had at least completely destroyed the defense system at the top of the city. Through the telescope, he could no longer see any signs of active Ming Dynasty officers and soldiers.
According to the siege warfare attack model trained by the Army in the past, an assault can be launched at this time. The infantry uses ladders to climb the city, and the artillery and light infantry firepower suppresses the defenders at the top of the city to counterattack. A single charge can take down the city wall. However, outside the south city
The troops were just "containment" - a feint attack on the south wall. In order to attract the enemy's attention, the real main attack direction was to the north, in an attempt to block the Ming army's retreat route to the north.
To be honest, Zhang Dapao cannot understand the commander's "combat determination." According to Zhang Dapao's idea, if all the artillery firepower at hand is concentrated, coupled with the cooperation of the West Detachment of the Pearl River Task Force, a section of the city wall can be blown down to open a breach that is wide enough.
, and then the engineers built a pontoon bridge, and the infantry could quickly enter the city through the gap and defeat the enemy.
If he does this, Zhang Dapao will undoubtedly win the first victory in the Wuzhou Campaign.
But the battle plan was another one, a feint attack on Nancheng, with the main attack in the north. At the battle meeting, Zhu Mingxia roughly explained the reasons for this battle determination.
First, the general idea of the Fubo Army has always been to fight a war of annihilation. It does not focus on the gains and losses of one city or one place. It emphasizes a war of annihilation and does not advocate a rout war. Therefore, it cannot simply defeat the Ming army and let them sneak away.
All over Guangxi.
Second, according to intelligence reports from the city's intelligence personnel, the Ming army was preparing to set fire to the city. According to predictions, once the Fubo army quickly entered the city, knowing that the city was about to be breached, the Ming army would immediately set fire to it, and it was very likely that they would end up with nothing but a fire.
The ending of Wuzhou City being destroyed together.
Zhang Dapao knew that the Senate was both generous and stingy. It did not hesitate to spend large sums of money during the war and construction, but when it came to collecting the spoils after the war, it was really necessary to spend every penny. It felt a bit like losing money if you didn't pick up the money when you went out.
If Wuzhou is beaten to a pulp and thousands of people die, the chief's face will not look good. Unlike the government, the first thing the chief wants is people. To the Senate, a broken city is not important.
, the common people are the most critical "trophy".
Therefore, Zhang Dapao's contribution can only be "auxiliary". Since a feint attack is required, the feint attack must be of sufficient weight to make the enemy mistakenly think that the direction of the feint attack is the direction of the main attack - the momentum must be large.
Although it was a feint attack, Zhang Dapao still planned to open several openings in the south wall of Wuzhou City, so that the Ming army defending the city in Wuzhou would be shrouded in fear of Fubo's army attacking at any time day and night.
Therefore, Zhang Dapao did not skimp on artillery shells at all. Just let Lianqin nag. I have no intention of saving you artillery shells. The first round of shelling alone consumed one-third of the solid ammunition inventory of the siege artillery battalion. Zhang Dapao lightly asked his men to
The logistics officer returned to the 1st Brigade Joint Logistics Headquarters on Changzhou Island to ask for ammunition; the joint logistics troops were shocked. After allocating the ammunition, they went to the Translation Office and sent a telegram to the South China Army Sanshui Joint Logistics Headquarters; Hong Huangnan received the telegram
After that, I was also shocked. Such a fight would wipe out all the money in a few days. However, after sighing, I still approved the first brigade's request for ammunition, and then conveniently sent another telegram back to Lingao;
When this telegram was delivered to the artillery shell factory, the workers gritted their teeth and continued to work overtime. They had been working overtime for several months and did not care about a few more weeks.
Any city wall has a common weakness, and that is the city gate. The city wall can be constructed of solid rammed earth, but the city gate can only be made of wood. Wood is really vulnerable to cannonballs, let alone 130mm cannons.
The cannonballs can easily penetrate the ship.
So Zhang Dapao ordered three 130mm cannons to aim at Dezhengmen, Nanxunmen and Yangmingmen respectively, and the other artillery concentrated their firepower to cooperate and try to blast open the city gate.
After a while, all kinds of cannons poured out their tongues of fire again, hitting the three city gates with solid bullets of large and small sizes. These cast-iron cannonballs hit the wooden city gates, and it felt like they were hitting thin paper.
Mingmen was the first to be blasted open, and suddenly smoke and dust billowed. After a while, through the telescope, Zhang Dapao saw that Yangmingmen was not the passage leading to the city under normal circumstances, but a blast of thousands of sores.
A mound of soil with hundreds of holes.
Dezheng Gate and Nanxun Gate were blasted open one after another. Zhang Dapao knew what was inside the gate without even looking.
The Ming army blocked the door.
Blocking the gate is the ultimate means to make up for the weakness of the city gate, but it is tantamount to giving up the initiative at the same time. Since ancient times, the defenders have attached great importance to the initiative of going out of the city to fight, and from time to time send troops out of the city to harass, disrupt and destroy the siege's operations.
Subordinates, especially the Ming army, pay special attention to fighting for the city gate when defending the city. Not only will they set up a wall outside the city gate to protect the city gate when conditions permit, they will also organize small troops to rush out from the city gate to carry out counterattacks when necessary.
, disrupt the enemy's attack.
Once the city gate is blocked, it is tantamount to giving up the initiative and completely fighting to the death.
For these temporary city walls built with bricks, wood, and mud behind the city gate, it is only a matter of time before they are destroyed by 130mm cannons. However, the reason why the feint attack is a feint attack determines that it is not a real attack. Zhang Dapao estimated that,
There are already enough solid shells hitting the Wuzhou city wall. If we continue to blast them with such high intensity, all the solid shells in stock will be consumed by the artillery without waiting until evening.
Zhang Dapao ordered all artillery to stop bombarding the city wall, and the gunners cleared the barrels to prepare for the next wave of bombardment.
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Will update next time Volume 7 - Guangzhou Governance Chapter 308
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