Dominate the Country

[Thanks to the book friend ‘Zou Yong’ for the 1,000-coin reward]

The sky above Huangpi County is being covered by the sound of artillery fire like thunder.

Since the Fifth Artillery Battalion appeared on the Huangpi battlefield, the Sichuan Army has been getting worse day by day. Ma Mingxun asked Aligun for help many times. Aligun also understood that the situation in Huangpi had changed. Ma Mingxun was not ‘falsely reporting military information’, but what Huangpi waited for was only one or two thousand civilians sent by Zhu Gui. What good is this? And Zhu Gui himself did not enter Huangpi. He was the Minister of Tuanlian in Hubei. He continued to sit in Hanyang Prefecture and raise civilians and food. Ma Mingxun wanted to spit in his face. It was a pity that he was very respectful to Zhu Gui when he first entered Hubei. This is a talented person who passed the imperial examination at the age of seventeen. He and his brother Zhu Yun are both Hanlin. But now it seems that scholars only have the skill of talking. When the country is in crisis, we still need military officials like him.

"General, Chen Ni's troops are coming again. Zhang Zhentai can't hold on anymore..."

"If you can't hold on anymore, retreat. Tell Zhang Yidong to push the Hubei militia up. We will retreat at night..."

Ma Mingxun looked at the sun in the west. It would be dark in another hour. He would take the opportunity to leave. Last night, Ma Mingxun didn't make up his mind to retreat. After a hard day's battle today, the number of soldiers he lost made him feel heartbroken.

The artillery of the Fu Han Army completely suppressed the artillery fire in the city. Its soldiers also filled a flat road with sandbags and earthbags on the battlefield full of potholes and gullies, and pushed the shield cars one by one to the front of the Sichuan Army. The flying thunder cannon of the Fu Han Army moved to the front line. Every shot was earth-shattering. The trenches were shallower, and the shock could shake people. In addition to the flying thunder cannon, Chen Ni's army also had a small cannon with curved shells, which fired very quickly and fired all shrapnel shells. The Fu Han army also had special grenade throwers, whose accuracy and distance in throwing grenades were much better than those of the Sichuan soldiers. The Huangpi defenders lost all their advantages!

What did Ma Mingxun rely on to stop the Fu Han army's attacks again and again?

The cannons in the city, the small cannons in front of the battle array, the deep trenches, and the underground traffic lines connecting the front and back. There were also boxes of grenades. Even if they were just the simplest open-flame grenades, more than 10,000 Sichuan soldiers firmly defended Huangpi County.

At that time, the Fu Han army also had flying thunder cannons and small cannons that could fire shrapnel shells, but they could not move these two cannons to the front of the battle array. The area around Huangpi County was full of big pits and deep trenches dug by the Sichuan army. Under the coverage of the artillery in the city, the Fu Han army wasted enough time just to fill up those deep trenches and flatten those earthen mounds. How slow would it be for the shield vehicles to move on such a bad position? At such a slow speed, were the sky rockets and sub-cannons in the Qing army's battle array all useless? There are still a dozen or so cannons behind them, which are specially used to suppress the large forces of the Fu Han Army.

The sub-cannons on the battle array, which have almost disappeared in the Qing army, are now increasingly equipped in the Qing army because of their light weight and super mobility - one person can carry it away, plus a faster rate of fire. In addition, the large-caliber guns made by the Qing army are very powerful against shield carts.

It is also because there are many sub-cannons and large-caliber guns in the Qing army sequence that even if the fifth artillery battalion of the Fu Han Army completely suppressed the Qing army cannons in the city, those shield carts also spent a lot of effort to push to the front of the position.

Anyway, Ma Mingxun's defensive battle in Huangpi surprised Chen Ming. The speed at which the Qing army learned lessons and summed up experience shocked him. No longer pursuing pure battles in battle array, no longer talking about face, digging tunnels, throwing grenades, suppressing large enemy forces with cannons, and using small cannons to deal with shield carts, they have learned enough of the Fu Han Army's defensive battles on the Henan battlefield. If the Fu Han Army cannot suppress the Qing Army with artillery firepower, or if the gunpowder reserves are tight in the future, then this method will really be very effective.

Before dark, the Fu Han Army broke through the west gate of Huangpi County, and the Qing Army and the militia organized street fighting. The Fu Han Army already had some experience in street fighting, throwing grenades and bombarding buildings with small artillery. The sub-cannons left by the Qing Army on the battlefield were moved by the Fu Han Army. Unfortunately, the troops that entered the city had only demolished two rows of houses with grenades and small artillery, and the drums of retreat sounded in the rear.

It was getting dark.

The Fu Han Army was now in an all-round advantage, and Chen Yongsheng was unwilling to fight to the death with the Sichuan Army in the dark. Even though there were many main battalion officers in front of the army asking Chen Yongsheng to fight, they were really frustrated in the battle of Huangpi and couldn't use their strength. They just wanted to beat the dog who was down and take this opportunity to teach the Sichuan soldiers a lesson. Chen Yongsheng firmly denied it. No matter how thick your armor is, can it stop the grenade? The Sichuan soldiers were doomed, and the Fu Han Army had just started its campaign in Hubei. He felt sorry for the death of one more soldier from the main battalion. Although Chen Yongsheng knew that his order to retreat at this time gave the Sichuan soldiers in the city a chance to breathe.

The next day, the rumbling of artillery echoed in Huangpi City, accompanied by the roar of collapsed houses. At a section of the city wall that was blown down at the East Gate, a group of red-clothed soldiers, like stars surrounding the moon, protected Chen Yongsheng's not-so-tall figure and stepped onto the city brick ruins.

Last night, the Sichuan soldiers ran away. But they didn't run away completely, and some of them were blocked back to Huangpi County.

Most of the East Gate ruins had been cleared, but it was still difficult to walk up. Chen Yongsheng was still wearing leather boots, and he sprained his feet several times. Climbing up the ruined East Gate from the ruins, there were purple, black and brown bloodstains on the steps, and the strong stench of corpses and blood could not be covered up.

However, these smells had no effect on Chen Yongsheng. From the battles in Henan to now, what kind of tragic scenes had he not seen? When fighting in the summer, in the valleys outside Jiujiang City, every time the battle ended, he could see rotting corpses, countless white maggots rolling in the broken stomachs and skulls, and some corpses had stomachs swollen like pregnant women in their tenth month, full of yellow-brown corpse fluid. Once moved, the stench was really unbearable.

In spring, summer and autumn, after each battle between Jiujiang and Hukou mountains, hundreds of carts of quicklime were used to sprinkle the positions and the surface. Even then, there were two small-scale epidemics, which killed hundreds of Jiujiang defenders.

"They are already at their wits' end, but they still don't want to surrender?"

"There are not only Sichuan soldiers but also civilians resisting in this city. The latter have been bewitched by the Tartars and are determined to fight to the death." The officer beside him paused and said, "These civilians are more loyal to the Qing Dynasty than the Sichuan soldiers. Even the Sichuan soldiers who are mixed with them dare not surrender."

The trained militia in Hubei are somewhat different from the trained militia in Jiangnan. In Hubei, most of the officials who come forward to organize the trained militia are from official families. Those ordinary gentry, landlords and powerful people have sent food and silver to these official families, but very few of them stand up and show up. Those official families either have blood feuds with the Fu Han Army or have children serving as officials in Beijing. They are very loyal to the Tartars.

Chen Yongsheng stood on the ruined tower and looked at the situation in the city. What he could see was the collapsed houses in the city. The Qing soldiers and the civilians held the alleys to the death, but the Fu Han army threw grenades and pushed small artillery bombardment, which was beyond the reach of flesh and blood.

There were not many corpses on the east-west avenue of Huangpi County, but some alleys were densely covered with corpses like broken sacks. It was not just the Qing soldiers and the civilians, there should be Huangpi people who took the initiative or were taken to block the intersection.

"Then just kill like this. There will always be a time to kill all the weak." Chen Yongsheng's eyes swept across Huangpi County and looked towards the farther west. The Fu Han army's footsteps would not stop at Huangpi. The Grand Commander had sent a military order. Before he led his troops to Huangzhou, he had to lead his troops to take over Hanyang Prefecture City, and seize Wusheng Pass in De'an Prefecture, Jiuli Pass to the east of Wusheng Pass, and Pingjing Pass to the west. These three passes are collectively known as the Yiyang (Xinyang) Three Passes, which have been military passes and key points from north to south for generations.

"You say, if all the more than 1,000 Hubei militiamen trapped in Huangpi City were killed, and this matter was publicized, wouldn't it be a great deterrent to the Hubei Lianyong?"

"Will the people of Hubei still dare to join the Lianyong militia?"

If you can't threaten the officials who organized the militia, then threaten the people who joined the militia. The Fu Han Army wants to seize the world, and sooner or later they will punish the landlords and gentry. When the Fu Han Army declares itself king and establishes a system, and stipulates that the highest land rent in the world cannot exceed one out of four, those landlords and gentry will probably jump even higher, right?

Chen Yongsheng returned to the big tent and sat on the chair thinking of some news revealed in the correspondence between Chen Ming and him. If those news can really be issued to the world in the form of government orders in the future, the gentry and landlords in the world will probably hate the Fu Han Army.

…

In Jiangnan, the Qing army of Songjiang Prefecture completely occupied a large area east of Jiangyin. The Qing navy also captured Nantong Prefecture. Duan Xiulin and the Guangdong navy launched a exploratory attack on Jiangyin by land and sea. The first battle was in Huangshan.

At the beginning, the Fu Han army set up dozens of cannons on Huangshan [Jiangyin Huangshan], and no Qing navy warship dared to easily break into it. The narrow river surface was only three miles, and the cannons set up on the top of the mountain could completely block the entire river surface. Moreover, the Fu Han army built a full five artillery platforms on Huangshan, and it was rumored that there were forty or fifty light and heavy artillery.

"Boom boom boom..." In a very short period of time, the two Qing navy warships that entered the blockade area of ​​the Huangshan artillery platform fired four shots at Huangshan. Four iron bullets smashed four clouds of dust on Huangshan.

The five Fu Han Army artillery batteries on Huangshan Mountain were silent. The fearful Guangdong Navy became more courageous. The two warships moved closer to Huangshan Mountain. The gunners on the ship cleaned the barrels at the fastest speed in their lives, loaded gunpowder and iron bullets, and inserted the fuse.

"Boom boom..." Four more explosions...

On the Guangdong Navy warships in the distance, a group of generals, deputy generals, and lieutenant generals stretched their necks to look at Huangshan Mountain. No cannons were fired, and the mountain was still quiet. No cannons were fired.

"General, you say... Could it be that Chen Ni escaped?"

The general was sitting on the boat, and a commander said to the general. The two ships in front had fired two shots, but there was still no movement on the Huangshan artillery. It really made him suspicious.

"Not really. There are dozens of cannons on the artillery..." The general raised the telescope again and looked at the artillery on Huangshan Mountain. That's right, the cannons were shining coldly under his eyes, that's right.

"Send someone to inform General Duan and ask him to send a team to take a look..."