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Quality is more important than quantity. Jin Shenghuan had only 10,000 troops, but with the help of the navy, he advanced northwards at the fastest speed along the east bank of the Yellow River.
Because Zhao Hongming, a former guerrilla of the Ming army, suddenly led his troops to attack the county government at night and killed the Qing general Zhang Cunren with gunpowder, the Qing army stationed in Suqian abandoned the city and fled north. Jin Shenghuan easily captured Suqian County without wasting a single arrow or bullet. Then he rushed to Xuzhou without stopping.
The defense of Xuzhou was originally under the charge of Zhang Cunren. After Zhang Cunren's death, the Qing army's dispatch was ineffective and all the towns and cities along the way were lost. Jin Shenghuan reached the city of Xuzhou at an astonishing speed.
Xuzhou was one of the ancient nine states. From the end of the Yuan Dynasty to the end of the Ming Dynasty, Xuzhou suffered many disasters. In the 12th year of Zhizheng in the Yuan Dynasty, the right prime minister of the Yuan Dynasty, Tuotuo, personally led a large army to suppress the Li Er uprising in Xuzhou. He bombarded the city with hundreds of cannons, destroying it completely. Later, the city was rebuilt at the foot of Kuishan Mountain and renamed Wu'an Prefecture.
During the Hongwu reign of the Ming Dynasty, Wu'an City was abandoned and the city of Xuzhou was rebuilt on the original site. The city wall was built with bricks and stones, with a circumference of more than nine li. The height and bottom width of the city wall were both 23 feet, and the top width was 11 feet. There were four gates in the city: the east was called Heqing Gate, the west was called Tongbian Gate, the south was called Ying'en Gate, and the north was called Wuning Gate. The city was surrounded by a moat, which was about 30 feet deep and wide.
In the fourth year of the Tianqi reign of the Ming Dynasty, the Yellow River broke its dike, the water was 13 feet deep, and the city was completely flooded. So it was moved to Ershilipu in the south of the city and rebuilt. Xuzhou was moved again.
In the first year of Chongzhen, the water receded and the city was silted up to a thickness of one to five meters. At that time, Tang Huan, the military governor, rebuilt it on the original site, which was called Chongzhen City. The scale and shape of the city were similar to those of the underground Hongwu City. The east gate and north gate of the city retained their old names, the west gate was renamed Wu'an Gate, and the south gate was renamed Kuiguang Gate.
Now, Xuzhou may be facing another huge disaster, because Jin Shenghuan received the order to take Xuzhou as quickly as possible at all costs.
The Qin army, dressed in black and black armor, rushed to the Kuiguang Gate at lightning speed and immediately divided its troops to besiege the Wu'an Gate to the west.
Zheng Sihai's fleet was anchored on the river, protecting the logistics ships on the river. The sails on the river were blocking the sun. The oars were like a wall, and the voices of people were noisy.
Xuzhou originally had 2,000 garrisons, led by Melezhang Jing Mandula. After Zhang Cunren was killed in Suqian, 3,000 Qing troops from Suqian fled back to Xuzhou. After integration, Mandula had a total of 5,000 troops.
With 5,000 against 10,000, it would not be a problem for Mandula to defend Xuzhou. Duoduo also sent a strict order that if Xuzhou was lost, he would be executed.
Mandula personally went to the South Gate to constantly boost morale, but the thousands of Qing troops who had fled back from Suqian were demoralized, and Duoduo was defeated. The sudden death of their chief general Zhang Cunren was a huge blow to them.
Seeing the low morale of the Qing army, Mandula was worried. For the sake of his own life, he carried all the gold and silver treasures he had accumulated to the top of the city wall and distributed them to the officers and soldiers on the top of the city wall. The Qing army soldiers received the silver and their morale was finally improved.
Outside the south gate, the black flags of the Qin army were like dark clouds, and their black clothes and armor gave people a cold and hard feeling like steel. The heavy momentum was so strong that even before the siege, there was a feeling of dark clouds pressing down on the city, ready to destroy it.
"Look, what is that?"
"It's the Red Cannon, oh my god!"
"Look, the enemy has so many red cannons..."
The Qing soldiers on the city wall suddenly became agitated.
"What are you yelling about? What are you yelling about!" Mandula hurried over, and a Qing soldier pointed to him and said, "Master Zhangjing, look, the Qin army has brought a lot of cannons."
Mandula looked in the direction the soldier pointed, and a chill ran down his spine. He saw the Qin army pushing twenty red cannons toward the south gate.
In addition, there were nearly a hundred thousand-jin Portuguese cannons being unloaded from the ship. Seeing this, Mandula's scalp was numb.
Mandula was not wrong. In order to quickly capture Xuzhou before Duoduo could react, the Qin Dynasty spent a huge amount of money.
This time, Jin Shenghuan brought a total of 20 red-coated cannons. The red-coated cannons were the name used by the Qing dynasty, and the Qin army liked to call them red-coated cannons. Of course, no matter what they were called, their power would not be discounted.
Jin Shenghuan brought only 10,000 troops. In addition to the idea that quality is more important than quantity, he also wanted to fool Duoduo and make him think that it was unlikely that 10,000 Qin troops would be able to quickly break through the Xuzhou city defended by 5,000 Qing troops.
Little did they know that although the Qin troops in the east were small in number, their equipment was the most terrifying. Previously, these equipment were all built on the boats and looked like food and fodder.
I've been fooled, I've been fooled! Mandula was shocked and quickly ordered his soldiers: "Go quickly, ask Prince Yu to send troops to reinforce Xuzhou, and tell Prince Yu about the enemy's situation, go quickly!"
"Yes!" The personal soldiers rushed down the horse road, holding their swords, and rushed out of the city from the north gate to seek help with dozens of people.
Mandula felt that he could not just sit there and wait for death, so he called his deputy general Xu Liangcai and said, "Take a thousand cavalrymen and give the enemy a head start while they are still not firmly established. Go quickly."
There were only a thousand cavalrymen in Xuzhou city, so Xu Liangcai received the order and had no choice but to go into battle.
The Wu'an Gate in the west suddenly opened, and the drawbridge over the moat was lowered with a series of "clicks".
One thousand Qing soldiers were about to charge out, but two hundred steps away, several Qin cavalrymen were well prepared. They quickly jumped off their horses, took down the rockets on the victory hook, blew the fire sticks into the wind, and quickly lit the fuses... ...
Chirp! Chirp! Chirp! With a few strange noises, three rockets with dazzling tail flames whizzed towards Wu'an Gate. Amid the exclamations from the top of the city, the Qing army that had just rushed out of the city immediately ushered in a baptism of blood and fire.
Boom! Boom! There were three loud noises in succession, shaking the earth and the sky. Three balls of fire shot up into the sky, and the city wall was trembling and about to collapse.
The drawbridge that had just been lowered was instantly blown off, and the Qing soldiers who rushed out were thrown off their horses and screaming in agony. Some of the broken limbs were blown onto the top of the city wall by the violent shock wave.
The frightened war horses in the city gate were running around recklessly and trampling on each other. Some of them neighed and rushed into the icy moat. Xu Liangcai, who led the way out of the city, was not even found with his body. His war horse was blown into two pieces, his intestines were all over the ground, and his body was charred by the flames.
The Qin army's rockets had all been heard of by the Qing army, and were praised as miraculous.
But none of these people in Xuzhou had ever seen its power;
At this moment, the tragic scene outside the city gate was horrifying. The power was even more terrifying than the red cannon.
Mandula originally sent Xu Liangcai out to give the Qin army a warning, but before the troops crossed the suspension bridge, they were hit head-on by the Qin army. More than ten people were killed in the explosion, and dozens of people died because the war horses were frightened and trampled on each other. The city gate was littered with dead and wounded, and the suspension bridge was blown up. The deputy general Xu Liangcai was not found at all.
The morale that had been boosted by Mandula's distribution of all his gold, silver and treasures was instantly drained away. The Qing troops on the city walls looked dejected and felt deeply saddened!
Boom! Boom! Boom! The Qin army's war drums then sounded, the heavy hammers hitting the drums, the sound shook the heavens and the earth, and the world was filled with solemnity.
Looking from the south gate, one could see the Qin army pressing towards the city walls like a dark cloud, and their overwhelming momentum seemed able to overwhelm Xuzhou City at any time.
"Prepare for battle! Prepare for battle!" Mandula yelled hysterically, his voice trembling. In front of the Qin army, there were twenty red-haired cannons and eighty thousand-jin Portuguese cannons. The black muzzles of the guns emitted a cold light, like the bloody mouths of monsters devouring people.
There were one hundred cannons, and the Qing troops on the city wall counted them clearly. A full one hundred cannons were gradually approaching the South Gate amid the dull footsteps of the Qin army.
On the south gate, the four short tiger squatting cannons of the Qing army were compared with the artillery formation of the Qin army... .... No, don't compare them. If you insist on comparing the four tiger squatting cannons, the Qing army on the city wall will have no confidence to hold on.
Jin Shenghuan sent out 6,000 troops this time to press on the South Gate. The order Qin Mu gave him was simple: Hurry!
He had to capture Xuzhou before Duoduo could react, so he sent 6,000 troops forward while the remaining several thousand troops were still camping.
The war drums suddenly stopped, and there was a dead silence between heaven and earth. The air seemed to freeze suddenly. The Qin army in black clothes and dark armor stood still like a mountain, with only the fluttering flags in front of the formation.
As soon as the artillery array was set up, Jin Shenghuan, standing on his warhorse, raised his sword, and the six thousand Qin soldiers immediately shouted in unison:
"Descend or not!"
"Descend or not!"
"Descend or not!"
The roar was like thousands of tigers roaring together, shaking mountains and rivers, and directly destroying the city walls.
"Boom! Boom them to death!" Mandula roared fiercely but weakly.
His soldiers replied in panic: "Master Zhang Jing, I'm afraid our tiger squat cannon can't shoot that far..."
"Even if you can't shoot that far, you have to shoot, quick! Shoot quickly!"
Boom! Boom! As if to give themselves courage, several tiger squat cannons on the top of the city roared, and the shells flew more than a mile away and fell a mile away from the Qin army formation.
Jin Shenghuan smiled coldly and raised his right arm again...
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The masters roared and the monthly votes rolled in. As a small author, I spent four years to squeeze into the monthly vote list. I worked hard every day with anticipation. After more than a thousand days and nights, my white hair has become shorter and shorter, and I can't even hold a hairpin. Therefore, I feel very emotional.
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