Steel Dynasty - Chapter 880

[Chapter 878 Advancement Tactics]

The salty and wet smell of sea water came to us in the east wind.

Yao Hongtao stared intently at the imperial soldiers who were coming slowly. Unlike their nervousness, these soldiers seemed to have a chance of winning.

They even heard loud singing from a long distance away. The singing was impassioned and exciting to hear.

“Let the artillery prepare.”

Yao Hongtao put down the monocular telescope in his hand. These items were purchased by the merchant council from Western merchants. Almost every general now has one.

“Yes, General.” After receiving the order, the deputy general immediately had all the artillerymen in position, loaded the artillery shells, and waited.

At the same time, soldiers with flintlock rifles ran back and forth on the city wall to set up defenses, and everyone found their own shooting position.

After everything was ready, the lieutenant general frowned and said, “General, there don’t seem to be many soldiers in Dayu. There are only about 20,000 soldiers. Maybe we can defeat them from the front.”

Yao Hongtao glanced at the lieutenant general and said lightly. : “Do you think the northern royal army is Li Chuyuan’s stragglers? You didn’t know where they were when these soldiers used flintlocks to defeat the barbarians in Jizhou!”

The deputy general’s face turned red, and he successfully defeated several sieges. After that, he was very confident in the current firearms army. In his opinion, defeating Li Chuyuan was only a matter of time.

Because of this, they did not pay attention to the army in front of them. He said: “The general seems to be a little too ambitious to destroy his own prestige. Now it turns out that the loyalty of soldiers loyal to the vassal king is far less than that of soldiers loyal to the merchant council. The same reason , I believe that the people must be dissatisfied with the decadent dynasty in the north, and their soldiers will not sacrifice their lives for them.”

“Really? Have you ever been to Qingzhou? “Yao Hongtao is not one of his people.” , but was assigned by the Merchant Council.

He knew very well that the Merchant Council was not very confident about him, but he had chosen to betray the King of Chu. Now he had no choice but to follow the Merchant Council, not to mention that Cao Kun promised to give him a seat as a member.

The deputy general was speechless again. He argued: “General, it seems that you don’t believe enough in the Merchant Council. Now, under the suggestion of King Qinglong, the Merchant Council has decided to adopt the method he used in Jizhou to win over people. Just wait and see.” Well, soon the people of Jiangnan will gather around the merchant council just like they did in Jizhou. “

Yao Hongtao frowned. He had seen this Qinglong King before, and he was a very cold scholar. , and the most terrifying thing is that this Qinglong King is very good at deceiving people.

When the King of Chu reused him, he successfully provoked unrest in Jizhou. However, after he failed and returned to the Chu State, he was put in cold storage because the King of Chu was also worried that the Qinglong King would bring cholera to the Chu State.

Now that the Azure Dragon King has defected to the Merchant Council, he can already imagine what will happen if these two freaks come together.

When the deputy general saw this, he immediately laughed and said: “This Qinglong King has a way of winning over the people. Now many people are sharing their land and surrendering to the merchant council in order not to pay for food.”

Yao Hongtao suddenly sneered when he heard this. The people felt sad because he knew very well that this slogan would eventually become a dead letter.

There has never been a dynasty in the past that did not pay for food. Now the merchant council just drew a big pie and asked the people to die for them.

“Sad, deplorable.” Yao Hongtao didn’t know whether he was talking about the deputy general or himself. He stopped talking, but stared at the royal soldiers who were getting closer and closer.

Outside the city, Lu Fei was observing the situation in Songjiang City.

Different from the past, the current Tiger and Ben troops were not arranged in a dense formation as before, but were distributed in skirmish lines outside the east wall of Songjiang City.

“There are twenty artillery pieces on this city wall, and there are soldiers with flintlock rifles on the city wall. If we attack head-on, there will be a lot of casualties. We only have 20,000 people, so we have to take advantage of the breech-loading rifles.” Lu Fei said seriously. , even with artillery, siege warfare is still a headache.

In particular, the soldiers in the city also use firearms. They can rely on the city wall to use firearms to kill the attacking soldiers, which is not cost-effective.

So, he continued: “Guo Ming, you immediately lead the soldiers to dig trenches until they are within fifty meters of the city wall.”

“Yes, general.”

Guo Ming responded. Now shovels have basically become the standard equipment of the army, for convenience It was to dig trenches, and after receiving the order, thousands of soldiers plunged into them.

So Yao Hongtao was surprised to see the royal army stop at a distance of 300 meters and start digging.

“General, what are they doing?” The deputy general was surprised. They had never encountered such a situation.

Yao Hongtao shook his head. He was also confused now, but he understood that this was definitely not a good sign. He shouted to the artillery; “Fire!”

After his order, the artillery on the city wall suddenly roared, solid. The bullets flew towards the royal army like lightning.

But when the cannon sounded, the royal troops on the opposite side immediately dispersed and looked for uneven terrain to use as a barrier to lie down. At the same time, he saw the royal soldiers lying on the ground starting to shoot.

“Bang bang bang…”

A burst of fire appeared, and bullets flew randomly on the city wall. Some soldiers were hit before they could dodge, and fell down with a scream. The city wall suddenly fell into chaos.

Yao Hongtao even broke out in a cold sweat on his back. When could the royal muskets be able to shoot three hundred meters?

While he was going crazy, Lu Fei kept urging the soldiers to dig trenches. In fact, the shooting accuracy was not very high at all. After all, the accuracy of shooting at 300 meters was not high.

He has gained experience in daily training. In fact, as the distance increases, the shooting accuracy of soldiers continues to decrease. Even though the range and accuracy of breech-loading rifles have been greatly improved, human vision and operation have limits. .

It is difficult to accurately shoot a person within 500 meters. The best shooting distance is still within 200 meters.

Therefore, this shooting is just to suppress the opponent’s artillery, rather than to kill the enemy.

After some fire cover, the soldiers dug trenches faster. None of the soldiers wanted to be smashed into pieces by the artillery on the city wall.

Three hours later, a winding trench extended to the foot of Songjiang City. Other soldiers entered the trench and continued to expand the trench project.

After the initial bombardment, the Parliamentary forces quickly gave up firing, as the Royal soldiers hiding in the trenches were unable to be harmed by solid shells.

At this time, Lu Fei ordered all the soldiers to enter the trench and surrounded Songjiang City. At the same time, mortars carried by two people also entered the trench.

They advanced to a distance of fifty meters from the city wall.

After receiving Lu Fei’s order, he immediately threw explosive bombs and lime bombs onto the city wall of Songjiang City. Soldiers holding Falcon rifles also shot at the city wall through the edge of the trench.

The battle of Songjiang City officially begins.

(End of chapter)