Chapter 37: Fierce Battle of the Frontier (5)

"Dong, dong, dong, dong, dong, dong...Dong, dong, dong, dong, dong, dong"

The huge battlefield was filled with only the roar of war drums, but it seemed particularly quiet. Teams of soldiers emerged from the camp behind the hills in sequence, including gray-clothed musketeers, green card-knife hands, black archers, and blue pirate soldiers.

The hundreds of households and the general flag sent out various signals, directing their subordinates to form a formation one and a half miles away from Guancheng according to the field war rules.

The first row of two thousand musketeers was divided into three rows, followed by eight hundred loading auxiliary soldiers; the second row was three thousand horsemen; the third row was two thousand card knifemen; and the last row was four thousand archers.

The Dongning Guard was on the right side of the formation, and the Guangning Guards gathered into a formation on the left. Their mission was to serve as the reserve team to prepare for the final siege. The cavalry of the Guangning Left Guard became the general reserve team after the hills.

The scout launched a search screen ten miles away from the west wing, warning the west of the battlefield; two miles to the east are the sea, and a plain surrounded by mountains and seas in front of the pass is a good place for fighting.

The last one to appear in the army was the most powerful weapon of the world - the smoothbore cannon. Fifty cannons lined up in the direction of the city gate.

Now all the crossbow beds of the Dingliao Youwei Cannon Battalion are equipped with smoothbore cannons. The current cannons are named "Zilong 2" by Zhu Zhi. Jiao Zilong presided over the research and development of Liaodong firearms, and naming them after him is also a kind of honor.

The "Zilong 2" type cannon has a copper-tied iron core, and the chamber pressure is higher than before. The direct shooting range reaches two and a half miles, which is 1,200 meters, which is 50% higher than the previous direct shooting range, but the weight is only 50 kilograms heavier than the past.

This artillery was designed by the navy, and of course it is preferred to equip the navy. Dingliao Right Guard was the first army unit to equip this type of artillery.

The military formation was arranged, and an artillery range-finding flag was out of the line and loudly ordered: "Distance-finding soldiers, two hundred steps, report the reading." Several range-finding soldiers ran out of the line.

He bent his bow and arrow and shot three feather arrows with red flags on each side of the flat ground, landing accurately in similar places, followed by reports one after another: "Two hundred steps, three gauge distance. The left wind measurement is three degrees."

"The distance measuring soldier, one hundred and fifty steps, report the reading." "One hundred and fifty steps, two quads of marking distance. The left wind measurement is three degrees."

"Distance measuring soldiers, one hundred steps. Report the reading. "Fifty steps, two mark distances. Left wind measurement three degrees." Three groups of arrow feathers with red flags were nailed to different distances on the battlefield, and the archers would mechanically shoot barrages according to the ruler to intercept them.

The dispatcher of the rangefinder nervously recorded the readings reported just one by one. The subordinates sent their subordinates to notify the musketeers, archers and artillerymen of the readings.

After completing the distance measurement, a general flag horse took off, holding a white flag and urging the horse to run towards Chengguan in a small step. When he ran to two hundred steps away from Chengguan, a feather arrow shot down from the city and swayed in front of him. He was clear about what he wanted to say.

The general flag shouted: "The subordinate officials are ordered by Wang Guan, the assistant commander of the Liaodong capital. He told the Shanhaiguan soldiers that the 202 soldiers who attacked the camp last night were all lost in the camp. The bodies were sent to the prison. Please send someone to collect them." After that, he took the horse and left.

Hundreds of auxiliary soldiers in the formation behind him wrapped the bodies of soldiers in straw mats and brought them to him in a coffin, but they wanted to find so many coffins for a while. The subordinates had no choice but to use the straw mats to make up the numbers.

Two hundred corpses were neatly arranged before the city gate. It was not the first time that the corpses of the other soldiers were returned in ancient war history, but they were all an era of etiquette, which was long enough.

The Yan army on the city obviously could not bear such etiquette. They looked at their compatriots in front of the city gate in surprise. What does this mean? Does it mean? In short, no one dared to open the door and go out to accept it. What if the Liaodong army took advantage of the chaos to rush to the door.

Zhao Yi looked at the corpse below with confusion, and felt cold inside. If the other party cut off the head of the camper and raised it to the gate of the village, it might also cause the anger of the soldiers and generals to close them. How much would it destroy the morale of the soldiers like this now? He glanced at the soldiers and generals beside him.

They looked at him hidingly, as if the Liaodong army had put the problem in front of Zhao Yi and had sent it back to you, would you dare to go out of the city to pick it up?

On the hillside, the little horse king sneered, could he not leave the city? To be honest, he never thought about taking action when his opponent left the city to receive the body. If he left the city, they had to fight in the formation below.

This is the result he most hopes to see. It is always more cost-effective to consume the opponent in field battles than to siege the city.

After a while, drums and thunder sounded in the city.

The heavy door slowly opened, and two rows of soldiers holding giant shields squeezed out of the city gate, lined up in two rows outside the gate to protect the city gate, and suddenly struck one by one to both sides. A cavalry quickly broke out, and lined up in four rows in front of the gate, with a total of about one thousand households.

Is it just that this little man wants to rush into the formation? The Little Ma Wang ordered the troops to hold on and not attack. He wanted to see if the Yan army was really so desperate.

The giant shield soldiers were still guarding the city gate, and a team of light infantry ran out from inside, ran to the place where the corpses were parked, lifted the corpses and ran back to the city, and two hundred corpses were quickly taken in.

The giant shield soldiers separated from both sides again, and the cavalry did not attack at all. They turned around and rushed into the city. The gate of Shanhaiguan squeaked and closed again.

The Liaodong army seemed to suddenly breathe a sigh of relief, and someone shouted: Yan army is all soft-boys, and I dare not fight like a man!...

The little horse king smiled slightly, "Get off the troops!" The general behind him was a little puzzled: "Why should the general withdraw his troops? The morale of the Yan bandits has been taken away, and they just happened to take advantage of the situation."

The little horse king sneered: "Xu, who is empty? Look at our soldiers. As soon as the Yan thief entered the city just now, their tense strings had already relaxed, and they had no energy to fight. He worked hard and then lost all his energy. Zhu Nengdi played this trick.

I won’t fight today, withdraw.”

The next day, the little horse king also led his army to walk under the gate for an hour. Seeing that the city did not come out to fight, he retreated without saying a word. This happened for five days. The generals were very puzzled when they saw that he was not anxious at all.

Zhao Yi on the city was even more puzzled. The Liaodong army was coming in a fierce manner. They were not in a hurry to attack, but they just cursed here every day. Do they have a greater purpose? The scouts from the Yiyuan area have reported that a large number of Liaodong scouts have been constantly appearing around Shoushan. Could it be that the Liaodong army used heavy troops to station in front of the pass as bait, and actually had to secretly cross Chencang from the Yiyuan? The situation outside the pass cannot be detected. The Liaodong army has kept every intersection very tightly, and few scouts can fly across the pass.

Zhao Yi has always suspected that the Liaodong Army still had important chess pieces hidden in the west.

Although he placed two cavalry guards from thousands of households in the Yiyuan Court, his own troops were weak and still not enough to defend the entire front line. He could only conduct mobile defense.

"Report, the scout of the Yiyuan Courtyard will return." Zhao Yi was discussing military information with several deputy generals and hurriedly ordered the scout to enter. Listening to the scout's narration, a layer of sweat oozed out of Zhao Yi's forehead.

Yesterday, a scout team broke through the alert and went deep outside the pass, but encountered the Liaodong Army's Day camp ten miles away from the entrance of Yiyuan. After several scouts passed the banner, they found that the other party had at least 10,000 people.

Moreover, the middle of the flag was written with the words "Guanning Iron Cavalry". According to the military newspaper before the Jingnan Dynasty, Zhao Yi immediately analyzed that this was the Dingliao Central Guard. It turned out that the Liaodong Army had this move there.

It seems that the Liaodong Army has made it clear that it has built a plank road and crossed Chencang in secret. The Liaodong Army is just a cover, but it is the one who really wants to take action.

Zhao Yi calculated the remaining troops in his hand and finally decided to send another cavalry of thousands of households to support the Yiyuan, which had already made the troops in Shanhaiguan reach a point where they could not be less.

When the order to dispatch troops was issued, a roar of cannons came from outside the hall. Another messenger hurried in and reported: "Report that Liaodong army horses came out of the camp to fight."

Zhao Yi's heart suddenly rose to his throat. In the morning, the Liaodong Army had already come and shouted and scolded for a while. At this time, he came to attack, what medicine should he sell land in the gourd? But he did not dare to neglect. He quickly put on his helmet and armor and went to the city gate.

I saw three square formations on the flat ground in front of the pass outside the range of the powerful crossbow, eight battle formations in the central square formation, and four battle formations on both sides were slightly tilted towards the city gate. The most surprising thing was.

There was a row of black cannons in front of the central square formation. That's right, they were cannons, mounted on wheels, larger than the iron cannons equipped by the Shenji Camp in the past.

The little horse king was still standing on the hillside, looking south from time to time, as if waiting for something. After a while, a bright firework suddenly soared into the sky from behind Shanhaiguan. The little horse king smiled with satisfaction and waved his hand: "The food is served."

Let's do it."

Flags of various colors in the Liaodong military formation flew over. After a while, the iron cannons flashed with fire, and the blue smoke rose, and then there was a deafening roar. Zhao Yi felt trembling under his feet. Obviously the iron cannons were attacking Shanhaiguan...

The first shot was a flowering bullet, and the shells hit the city gate and exploded with smoke. This was a school projectile. The range-finding soldiers immediately reported the reading, "A moment of gauge distance. Direct shot."

"The artillery commanders immediately directed their subordinates to adjust their positions, and then the messenger ordered: "Solid bullets, free shooting." The artillery commanders were waiting for this order...

The gate of Shanhaiguan is one foot thick and covered with copper leather. It is known as the thickest city gate in the world, second to Zhengyang Gate of Yingtian Prefecture.

Fifty of the most powerful artillery in the world fired together, and the entire earth was trembling. The direct fire of more than one thousand meters increased by 60% at a distance of 500 meters. The city gate was hit by extremely high speed shells, and each attack must be filled with wood chips.

The artillery only bombarded three rounds, and the city gate was already full of holes and was shaking.

Seeing the power of heavy artillery, even the Little Pony King was a little surprised. It turned out that his confidence was based on the power of these heavy artillery, but he would never have thought that just three rounds of volleys had achieved this effect.

A messenger waved a yellow flag on the hillside, and the two infantry guards on both wings began to move forward three hundred steps, only three hundred steps away from the city, which was already within the range of the strong crossbow at the top of the city.

The heavy artillery strike made Zhao Yi, who was on the front of the city, was like an ant on the ground on the hot pan. On the one hand, he ordered his men to bring all the materials that could be used to accumulate at the gate of the city. On the other hand, he ordered the archers in the corridor to walk up to the front of the city to start shooting and organize the Liaodong army to advance.

The bow and arrow shot towards the infantry phalanx three hundred steps away. When the shot reached, it was already at the end of the strong crossbow. The soldiers raised their shields and would not be damaged.

Seeing the Yan army fighting back, the little horse king sneered and sent an order: "Hehe, I'm afraid you won't come up, so I'll send the order and prepare the mortar."

The messenger waved the red flag, and the central square formation changed. Another batch of short cannons were erected with support, which was the mortar cannon. It is said that it was also a new weapon composed by His Highness the King of Liao and Jiao Zilong, with a copper-barrel cannon body, which was cheap.

According to the firing distance and gunpowder firing, the shells are mainly flowering bullets. This kind of cannon is bending with a range of 1,000 steps. It is the first time it is used on the battlefield today and is the best weapon to attack the city wall.

The first shot was too close to the city wall and exploded before reaching the city wall. The cannon leader added twenty steps to another round. This time the shell exploded on the outer wall, and then added twenty-five steps to the distance, which happened to hit the city wall.

The range-finder reported the reading and the mortar opened fire.

The bombardment of the mortar cannon was far beyond Zhao Yi's known war knowledge. When the first round of artillery fire covered the city, he was adjusting the defense of the city under his command, waiting for the opponent to attack the city. Unpreparedly, he was hit in the abdomen by a shrapnel of a shell.

The smoke of gunpowder filled the city of Shanhaiguan. Zhao Yi was lying in the city tower, his intestines had flowed out. He could not believe that the Liaodong army could use such an attack method, but why did they not attack a few days ago?

Zhao Yi asked tremblingly: "Have the enemy attacked the city?"

The deputy general under his command replied: "No, he just kept firing fireworks."

Zhao Yi said: "Everyone will disperse. Once the city gate is collapsed, Shanhaiguan will no longer be able to defend it."

The deputy general and his personal soldiers all burst into tears in pain: "General, we protect you to retreat."

Zhao Yi shook his head and said, "I can't do it anymore, it will drag you down. Remember, you must report every detail of today's battle. This battle is no longer the way of fighting in the past, you must let your highness know. Go quickly!"

Suddenly a messenger rushed into the gatehouse and shouted: "General, no, no, there is no, soldiers appear at the same time outside the south gate and the west gate. Under the banner of Liaodong.

"Zhao Yi spurted out blood. What kind of man is this? Did he have a pair of wings flying over Guancheng?

When the sixth round of artillery fire broke out, the shaking Shanhaiguan gate finally collapsed in a shocking roar. There were calls from inside and outside the city, and there was a cry of despair inside and outside the city.

The two infantry phalanxes stepped on the drums and rushed to the city. In order to prevent the mortars from accidentally injuring their friendly forces, the archers on the city had already been blown up and had no resistance at all.

The Guangning defender square formation on the left suddenly made a noise, and the formation began to scatter. Someone rushed towards the collapsed city gate. Then, the entire square formation rushed into the city gate as if boiling.

The Baihu General Banners of the Dongning Guard next to them tried their best to maintain the formation of soldiers affected by the Guangning Guard. Until all the Guangning Guards rushed into the city gate, they divided into two columns to rush towards the city gate.

Zhao Yi's death directly led to the collapse of the Shanhaiguan Guard. The rebel soldiers ran around like blind-headed flies. All four gates were blocked by the Liaodong Army. Only a group of 500 cavalry opened the south gate to fight for trapped beasts.

Who knew that when he hit the gun head-on, the muskets of the army outside the South Gate wiped out most of the cavalry that broke through, and only a few cavalry fought to the death.

When the Little Mawang entered the city, Shanhaiguan had become a boiling ocean. The Liaodong army strangled the defeated Yan army in the city like a rat. Some of the defeated soldiers pointed out the houses in the city, and fires shone everywhere in the city.

The Little Mawang ordered all ministries to restrain their subordinates from protecting civilian property and not killing prisoners.

But such an order did not work in a boiling city. Some Liaodong Army, especially the troops of Guangning defenders, could catch all the Yan army prisoners, and rushed into the homes of civilians to rob property and rape women.

The sun sets in the west, and the war at Shanhaiguan gradually subsided. A total of 7,000 Yan troops were either killed or captured and were annihilated in the city. The body of Zhao Yi, the commander of Yongping Guard, was found in the city tower. This was a beautiful annihilation battle, with only a hundred casualties in the Liaodong army.
Chapter completed!