The Sapporo Castle Wall was also built along the water, so there are two sides facing the water, the dry gate on the southwest and the water gate on the northeast. The main direction of the Tiger Guard's attack is the west gate. The troops of the Tiger Guard were deployed about 300 steps away from the city wall.
Formation.
Cai Jiuzhou stood there, observing the city wall of Sapporo with a telescope.
The city wall of Sapporo is about four feet high and spreads out about two miles horizontally. 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 at 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.
Cai Jiuzhou nodded and said to Shi Weide 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."
Shi Weide responded: "Yes." Then he turned around and immediately ordered the soldiers to prepare the artillery.
After a while, three or two two-thousand-jin Hongyi cannons, two one-thousand-jin Hongyi cannons, three No. 1 Franco cannons, four No. 2 Franco cannons, three No. 3 Franco cannons, and six
All the tiger crouching cannons have been laid out.
Except for the Tiger Crouching 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 for launch and angle, and have been filled with gunpowder and solid bullets.
At the command of the artillery group, 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. On the castle tower, Yamamoto Hideaki, who was commanding the defense of Takeda Tsubasa and the subordinate of Kenheijiro who had died in battle, 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 "boom!"
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.
Two more fell directly on the tower, causing the doors and windows of the tower to break and sawdust flying everywhere. They also killed several soldiers. They also frightened other soldiers on the tower and hid.
Takeda Tsubasa and Yamamoto Hideaki glanced at each other. Both of them were shocked by the siege tactics of Huben Guards. In Takeda Tsubasa's view, the siege should be close to the city wall, set up a ladder or a tower car, and then go up.
Climbing and attacking clearly means scooping people up and exchanging lives for the city. Therefore, siege battles are often the ones with the greatest losses. General generals will try to avoid siege battles. The Tiger Guards completely subverted this tradition of Takeda Tsubasa.
Concept, the men and horses did not get close to the city wall at all, but launched fire and cannon fire from a distance. It seemed that they planned to forcefully blast the city gate open. I couldn't help but be horrified. Could a siege battle still be fought like this?
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 and is used in field battles. It is too bulky and inconvenient to transport. When used to defend cities, because black powder is not very effective in this era, even if it uses shotgun shells, its lethality is only
Concentrated in a small area, the effect is indeed limited.
Moreover, if the attacker carries out a long-term siege of the city, the Hongyi cannon will be useless.
There were similar examples in the Ming Dynasty.
After Yuan Chonghuan's death, Zu Dasheng defended Daling River and Jinzhou in 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, both sieges ended with Zu Dajie running out of food and supplies and finally surrendering. As a result, a large number of well-made Hongyi cannons were given to Hou Jin in vain.
Instead, it became the most powerful weapon for the Qing army to attack the Ming Dynasty's fortified cities.
Because the Hongyi cannon is used to attack cities, it can give full play to its advantages of long range and high impact. It is used to attack city towers. The city walls can suppress the resistance at the top of the city, bombard the city gates, and provide
The siege soldiers opened the gap. There was no need to scoop up lives to fill the city. Some cities that seemed unconquerable at first were able to be conquered.
The fourteen artillery pieces spurted out tongues of fire continuously and roared, firing the shells mercilessly at the city walls, towers, and gates of Sapporo. After seven or eight consecutive rounds of bombardment, the city walls were hit with the most bullets. In Sapporo Castle,
The city wall near the gate 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 of Sapporo Castle no longer dared to stand on the tower and retreated to both sides. Even Takeda Tsubasa and Yamamoto Hideaki also retreated to the side.
The entire tower is almost undefended.
In fact, the main focus of the artillery attack is the city gate. Although the accuracy of the artillery is not low, due to the short distance and concentrated target, in each round of bombardment, there will always be three or four shells hitting the city gate, so six
After seven rounds, the city gate also received more than twenty blows, and four or five dents appeared on the city gate. If you look at the back of the city gate in the city gate hole, you can find that the city gate
There were many cracks in the wood on the door, and the door bolts were bent and deformed.
It was only a matter of time before the city gate was opened, so Cai Jiuzhou immediately ordered a group of musketeers to advance towards the city gate with tiger squat cannons, preparing to seize the city gate, while another battalion of musketeers marched along the city wall.
Shoot 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 gate of Sapporo Castle separated to the left and right.
"Run quickly! The Tiger Guards have entered the city."
"Run! Everyone, run! The Tiger Guards are coming."
The city gate was blasted open by artillery, and what little resistance the defenders had was completely gone. The rabble nature of the Japanese army was also completely exposed. The Japanese soldiers simply ignored the orders of the two generals and fled from the city wall one after another.
, fled towards another Hanmen South Gate, and the city suddenly became a mess. Therefore, when the soldiers of the Tiger Guards entered Sapporo City, they basically encountered no decent resistance.
Yamamoto Hideaki and Takeda Tsubasa also knew that the situation was over, and if they didn't escape, they might not be able to escape, so they also left the west gate. Because there was a dock in Sapporo Castle, and the Japanese ships were anchored there.
, so the two of them led more than a thousand accompanying soldiers and fled towards the dock in the city, preparing to escape by boat.
But after walking for a while, the two found that the avenue leading to the pier was overcrowded and blocked with water, making it difficult to pass.
It turns out that most of the soldiers also knew that they could escape from Sapporo by boat. Therefore, they all fled towards the dock. But how big can the dock in Sapporo City be? So many people wanted to leave by boat, and they would be there soon. Can you drive a boat?
Moreover, most of the boats had no sailors, so even if they got on the boats, they couldn't sail. As a result, as more and more people gathered, the boats couldn't sail, and instead blocked the road leading to the dock.
Yamamoto Hideaki and Takeda Tsubasa also arrived a little late. They were still hundreds of steps away from the pier, but they just couldn't get through. Therefore, they were so anxious that they just stamped their feet. But at this moment, several sounds came from behind. Gunshot.
Now the Japanese army was all frightened, so when they heard the sound of gunfire, everyone was frightened. Some people behind were trying to squeeze forward. People in front were struggling to hold on to the boat. There were several boats with sailors. Not caring about waiting for others, they unmoored the anchor, hoisted the sails, and left the shore. The soldiers on the ship without sailors didn't care much at this time, and they were all busy untying the cables and pulling them. They raised the sail, grabbed the oars and paddled, just to drive the boat away from the shore. Many people fell into the river due to crowding and fighting. The whole dock was also in chaos.
Looking forward, we saw three or four ships sailing away from the shore. Looking back, we could clearly see the soldiers of the Tiger Guard appearing at the other end of the road. The situation was critical. Yamamoto Hideo attacked Takeda Tsubasa. Humanity said: "Master Takeda, there is no other way now. We can only fight to open a bloody road and seize the ship before we can escape from Sapporo."
Takeda Tsubasa took a look at the situation and said, "I'm afraid it's too late. The Tiger Guards have caught up with me. Let's do this. You go and seize the ship. I'll lead people to resist for a while, and then I'll go find you."
After hearing this, Yamamoto Hideo immediately said: "Okay, let's do it. I will definitely wait for you on the boat."
After the two agreed, Takeda Tsubasa immediately led half of the soldiers and charged at the Ming army at the other end of the road. Yamamoto Hideaki also drew his samurai sword and shouted to the remaining soldiers: "Japanese soldiers." Warriors, follow me and fight to the dock."
As he spoke, he took the lead and rushed into the crowded crowd. With a wave of the saber in his hand, he chopped down the two soldiers in front of him.
At this time, Yamamoto Hideaki's followers all knew that if they didn't grab a boat to escape, they would all die here, so they all raised their weapons and started killing the crowd. Only one person was killed. Heads were rolling in the crowd and they were falling to the ground one after another. Yamamoto Hideo showed his bravery and danced his katana like a storm. He opened his bow from left to right and killed more than ten soldiers in a row.
When the other Japanese soldiers saw it, they were naturally not convinced, so they all raised their weapons and fought back. However, these personal followers of Yamamoto Hideo were all carefully selected samurai from Hiroo City, and they were also the elite of the Japanese army. These rabbles were comparable, and at this time they were also the only support for survival. Everyone fought desperately, so they just fought their way through the crowd.
The other Japanese soldiers were their opponents. Seeing their ferocity, they did not dare to stop them anymore. They retreated to both sides, allowing Yamamoto Hideo to lead his troops to finally reach the dock.
At this time, there were still twenty or thirty ships, large and small, parked on the edge of the pier. Five or six ships had left the shore, and on every ship that stopped at the shore, there were many Japanese soldiers aboard. , there were many soldiers also vying to get on the boat, fighting for it, and many people used swords and guns, only to kill countless corpses floating on the river. Yamamoto Hideaki also immediately led people to kill a boat parked on the shore. Go, they rushed and killed, first killing the soldiers on the shore who were rushing to get on the boat, then Yamamoto Hideo took the lead, pedaled, jumped on the deck of the boat, raised the knife in his hand, and killed two more The soldiers fell into the river, and other followers also boarded the boat, and soon the boat was completely under control.
Once the boat was in hand, Yamamoto Hideo felt relieved. Then he ordered his personal followers to stop other soldiers from pedaling the boat, and then ordered to prepare to sail the boat quickly. At the same time, he also sent someone to notify Takeda Tsubasa to come quickly.
Among Yamamoto Hideo's personal soldiers, there were a few who knew how to sail a boat, so everyone was busy pulling up the sails, raising the anchors, adjusting the steering wheels and oars, and getting ready to sail. But at this moment, they saw a river flowing downstream from upstream.
Next, more than ten large ships came over and approached the dock.
Yamamoto Hideo saw it and felt a little strange. He was wondering where the ship came from. Could it be the warship of the Tiger Guards?
Suddenly, there was a loud "boom - boom -" sound, and a large amount of smoke spread out from the bows of three large ships. Yamamoto Hideaki couldn't help being surprised. These three ships were actually equipped with artillery.
It turned out that when Cai Jiuzhou sent troops to attack Sapporo, he estimated that once the city was breached, the Japanese army would probably escape by boat from the dock. Cai Jiuzhou selected ten larger boats from the Huben guard navy and loaded them on them.
Among the small and medium-sized artillery pieces, the largest one is the No. 2 Franco machine gun, and thirty musketeers are stationed on each ship.
Therefore, after the war started, Cai Jiuzhou ordered these ten ships to wait near Sapporo City. After the Tiger Guards opened the city gate and entered Sapporo, Cai Jiuzhou ordered the ships to dispatch to attack the dock of Sapporo.
However, the defeat of the Japanese army was much faster than Cai Jiuzhou expected. Therefore, by the time the warships of Huben Guards arrived at the dock, six or seven ships had already left the dock and sailed to the other side of the Yangtze River.
The No. 2 Fran machine guns installed on the three leading warships also opened fire immediately. One of the three shells hit the water, stirring up a water column more than two feet high, while the other two shells hit two ships respectively.
One of the missiles hit the deck of the ship, causing wood chips to fly and killing four or five people. Another bullet hit the side of a ship less than three feet from the water, smashing out a water tank.
There was a big hole the size of a mouth. Although the gap was above the water, the side plates of the ship near the gap had been cracked, and the side sides had actually begun to soak with water.
Subsequently, the artillery on several other ships also opened fire, but the other warships were equipped with No. 3 Folan cannons and Tiger Crouching cannons, and the distance was simply out of reach. However, although most of the cannonballs fell into the water,
The deterrent effect it brought to the Japanese army was not small.
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The vehicles trembled when they heard the sound of guns and cannons. 6 Several ships sailed out of the dock and fought hard. Can they escape the gunfire?p>
When Yamamoto Hideaki saw it on the boat, his face changed with fright: