Dominate the Country

ps: Second update.

Taking advantage of the last remaining rays of winter, Chen Ming led a hundred people and quickly descended from Tiezhai.

He did not walk like the rest of the troops to show his "approachability" and to get closer to each other. Instead, they rode a group of mules, yes, mules, not horses. In the mountains, a good-natured mule is a better guarantee than a horse.

Chen Ming touched a purse on his waist. It was embroidered by Li Xiaomei for him and had been hanging around his waist for a while. Chen Ming had no feelings for this thing in the past, and he was even a little uncomfortable at first. How could he, who is a modern person at heart, think that a sachet hanging on the waist of a grown man is beautiful? But it's different now. He can calm down a lot by touching this purse.

Thinking of Li Xiaomei's strong face just now, thinking of Li Xiaomei's calm voice just now... Well, Chen Ming always felt that a man should be by his side when a woman gives birth to a child, and the first thing a child sees when he opens his eyes should be his parents. [As an aside, newborn babies do not open their eyes. In short cases, they have to wait for a while, and in long cases, it may take up to a week or ten days.]

This is the influence of his previous life, and it is also a principle that Chen Ming recognizes in his heart... But now there is a real possibility that he will miss the moment when Li Xiaomei gives birth. Who knows what the level of the Green Camp soldiers opposite the Phoenix Tower will be, and who knows what kind of shit this battle will turn into...

Phoenix Terrace.

Just when Chen Erbao hurriedly sent people to Tiezhai to report the news, the militiamen who had been quiet for a month became busy. They began to actively cut down trees. In Xu Shilian's eyes, these militia groups were no different from the militiamen who accompanied the army in the Ruzhou camp. Apart from cutting down trees and making their own tools, their flesh and blood bodies had no effect in front of a fortress like Phoenix Tower.

This battlefield is too narrow. Although the Chen family left the Yinma River and a strip of land on the south bank so that the Qing army seemed to be able to avoid the artillery fire of Phoenix Tower, don't forget that it is winter now and in the mountains. If Ruzhou Camp didn't completely capture the Phoenix Tower in front of them, what could they do since they slipped past it?

The stretch of land to the south is full of rocks, and it would be impossible to pass a carriage or horse without spending a lot of effort to clear it. Besides, there are a certain number of muskets on the Phoenix Terrace. The inability of the Qing army's carriages and horses to pass through meant that logistical supplies could not be supplied. The Ruzhou battalion, which could not even guarantee food and night's sleep, was of no use in fighting to Xiaonangou or to Tiezhai?

Chen Erbao didn't have to go out in Phoenix Tower. He could just watch Ruzhou Camp go west and wait for the good news. Xu Shilian and his troops went there looking for people to surrender. Otherwise, they could only freeze to death or starve to death.

As a fourth-grade Dusi, Xu Shilian was a mid-level general in the Qing army. Some generals still had basic military qualities. He knew the battle situation in front of him very well. If he couldn't open the Phoenix Tower, he didn't have to think about anything else.

This specific war environment and severe cold weather destined everything to be what it should be.

Xu Shilian ordered the militia to cut down trees and make long ladders and shield carts. The latter was an old trick used by the ancestors of the Qing army to deal with the Ming army's artillery. It's very old, but as long as it's useful, it's ok!

The two Weiyuan General cannons accompanying the army were dragged to the Phoenix Tower. Before the news was sent to Tiezhai, the bombardment had already started. After more than an hour of shelling, Xu Shilian saw the strength of the Phoenix Tower. Just as Li Zhao and the others said, the adhesive on the exterior of Phoenix Tower is as hard as stone.

The two Weiyuan general cannons fired six rounds each, hitting the front of the Phoenix Tower three times. The remaining nine shots were either close or far away and landed inside the Phoenix Tower. The Qing army could not see the effect. What Xu Shilian looked at was the concrete wall where the three bullets had hit. The three iron bullets had left three bowl-sized potholes on it, but that was all.

This made Xu Shilian almost give up on using cannons to speak. If he wanted to destroy such a Phoenix Tower with two Weiyuan General cannons, he would have to wait until the end of the year of the monkey. Xu Shilian asked the gunners to make more adjustments. If the Phoenix Tower could not be destroyed, then they should aim the muzzles at the closed turrets on the left and right. Phoenix Tower is not very spacious. If the two forts on the left and right collapse, the deterrent effect of the artillery in the hands of the Chen family will be greatly reduced. The front of the Phoenix Tower is too narrow. Once the two turrets are removed, the horizontal surface is shortened by less than half.

When Chen Ming arrived at the Phoenix Tower with his troops late at night, the small and long fire dragon was visible to the Qing army who was watching at night from a distance.

Reinforcements entered the Phoenix Tower. This news, along with the specific number of people, was reported to Xu Shilian and Li Zhao. Xu Shilian didn't react to the news at all after he got up the next day. Because he still didn’t really regard the Chen family as an evenly matched enemy in his heart, he continued to firmly believe that as long as the troops of the Ruzhou camp could withstand the two cannons in the hands of the Chen family, they would not be able to defeat the Chen family at all when the weapons actually came into contact. Undoubted victory.

Chen Ming just squinted for more than an hour and climbed onto the city wall at dawn. Looking at the camp in the distance, looking at the artillery forts that the Qing army had begun to build and reinforce, he even poked his head out to look at the potholes left on the city surface.

Chen Ming's expression was very relaxed, and his relaxation even made the Phoenix Tower's frozen breath loosen a lot. At the stall where the Chen family had just "fallen grass", military morale was largely maintained by Chen Hui and Chen Ming's father and son.

Although Chen Ming initially pushed the entire Chen family to become bandits, the opposition within the Chen family was obvious to all. However, after Chen Hui returned and stood firmly on Chen Ming's side, the dissent within the Chen family quickly disappeared. It's not that everyone has changed their minds, but Chen Hui has the qualifications and prestige to make everyone shut up for the time being and see the future results before talking about future matters. This is the influence and cohesion that Chen Ming said he did not have.

However, in terms of military force, Chen Ming's current prestige is higher than Chen Erbao's. Who made Chen Erbao passively accept the whole process while Chen Ming was the leader? Chen Ming seized the initiative a long time ago, so Chen Erbao's position is still extremely important, and his weight in the entire Chen family has become much heavier, but he is suppressed by Chen Ming in the team.

The relationship between the two of them has a bit of the flavor of generals. Chen Erbao is a well-deserved general, but Chen Ming is a marshal who commands generals.

Now Chen Ming is relaxed, and the troops think that Chen Ming is confident. Everyone's eyes and will were on Chen Ming, and Chen Ming's ease made everyone feel relaxed. Even Chen Erbao's expression relaxed a little, at least he looked less stressed.

"Boom..."

When the smoke from the camp opposite disappeared, the sound of artillery sounded again. Chen Ming was standing in the artillery fort, and he was not worried about the artillery fire from the opposite side. It was just a three or four pound iron ball, the size of a child's fist. If it could collapse a closed artillery fort made of one foot thick iron reinforcement, cement and stones, Chen Ming would be dead.

The small artillery of the Qing Dynasty was so powerful, so the general's artillery would be the end of the earth, so why would he rebel?

"Don't worry about it. Even if this small artillery is destroyed, it can't blow open the Phoenix Tower!"