Chapter 63

"Boom—"

The roaring sound of artillery fire kicked off the prelude to the great battle.

Two rookie artillery units firing at each other; it doesn't matter if they become the other side's target, instead, the area near the target is more dangerous.

Standing at the observation post of the city gate tower, Li Mu saw it very clearly.

A large area around the enemy's artillery position was cleared, and that row of cannons was still fine.

"Pass the order down, stop the fire coverage.

The first artillery platoon will fire at will first, and the second artillery platoon will take over after half an hour.

Send someone to notify the Commander, and tell him that the firepower in the south is severely insufficient.

Ask him to urge the Nanjing Ministry of War to hurry up and send the cannons over.

Red Barbarian Cannons, Three-Eyed Fire Muskets, Bird Muskets, Five-Thunder Divine Machines, Tiger-Crouching Cannons, Divine Fire Flying Crows, Fierce Fire Oil Cabinets, Lumi Muskets, Frankish Cannons...

No matter what kind of firearm it is, I won't complain!"

The excellent fire coverage tactic was declared a failure under the clumsy performance of his own artillery.

Li Mu did not give up; if the accuracy isn't enough, make up for it with quantity.

Behind him is the Great Yu Dynasty, which can fully afford to wear down the rebel army.

The weapons and equipment reinforced by the Nanjing Ministry of War have already arrived in Zhenjiang, and there are a large number of firearms inside.

Now there is only a river separating them; if you don't urge them now, when will you?

If the rebel army attacks Zhenjiang and the defenders directly withhold the firearms reinforced for them, that would be a huge loss.

Cultivating a qualified archer takes three years.

Training a musketeer only takes three hours.

Whether they hit the target accurately or not is not important; as long as they learn to load ammunition and can fire it normally, that's enough.

Just like the artillery under his command, they have never hit the target accurately, but the number of enemies they have killed is not small.

Defending the city, you don't need to be too picky.

"Yes, my lord!"

After speaking, the personal guard turned and left directly.

……

Rebel camp.

"Filling the river and building bridges will start at the same time; each of our families will be responsible for one side, striving to break through Yangzhou City as soon as possible.

According to the prior agreement, whoever's troops break into Yangzhou City first will be supported as the new leader of the Lianghuai Alliance.

I, Huang, keep my word; if your troops break into Yangzhou first, I will abdicate and yield the position!"

Huang Huang Renlong said spiritedly, without the slightest disappointment about being about to give up the position of leader.

As the rebel army that arrived under Yangzhou City first, not only did they have the most troops, but the preparations made for the siege were also the most thorough.

Throwing out the bait of the leader's position was mainly to worry that each family would not put in effort during the siege.

"General Huang, rest assured, we who mix in the world of bandits value loyalty the most.

Whoever is half-hearted in the siege battle and deliberately preserves their strength, I, Cui, will be the first one not to agree!"

As soon as Chief Cui spoke, the leaders of the rebel armies echoed in unison.

No matter what they think in their hearts, they have now embarked on this path of no return of rebellion.

Either kill their way out of a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood to become a noble.

Or fail in the startup and collapse halfway on the road.

The court is powerful, and if the various rebel armies don't want to be defeated one by one, they must unite.

As for whether to put in effort in the subsequent siege, that needs to be determined according to the situation.

However, there is one principle that must be followed: one can slack off on one's own, but it is absolutely not allowed for allies to slack off together.

The best choice is to unite to attack the city, with everyone supervising each other, so no one can slack off.

It's just that the drawbacks of doing this are also very obvious; handing over one's own troops to others to command makes everyone uneasy.

Mixing them together for command will lead to multiple sources of orders, and it will be difficult for friendly forces to cooperate.

Dividing the siege area and launching attacks separately became the choice of last resort.

"That's good, I hope our next meeting can be inside Yangzhou City!"

Huang Huang Renlong said heroically.

With the return of the rebel leaders, the Battle of Yangzhou broke out in an all-out manner.

In the blink of an eye, bridge-laying vehicles were pushed to the side of the moat and directly began to be assembled.

Not far away, there were also carts transporting soil, constantly dumping soil into the river.

The originally clear river water quickly became muddy.

……

"General Huang, the plan to attract the enemy's firepower has failed; order a stop to the shelling!

At this distance from the enemy's city wall, it is difficult for the artillery to hit the target accurately.

Our ammunition is limited and cannot afford such waste.

After the army crosses the moat, we will gather the cannons, catapults, and siege rams to launch a general attack on the enemy together!"

Seeing the defenders change their tactics, Kong Dou Yutang spoke up to persuade him.

In fact, long before the outbreak of the war, he had opposed launching the attack from the southeast.

From the failure of the previous siege, he realized that the defenders on the opposite side were not easy to deal with.

However, Huang Huang Renlong could not swallow this breath and insisted on climbing up from where he fell.

"Mr. Kong, stopping the artillery attack would be too damaging to morale.

Our ammunition reserves can support us for a few days.

I think..."

Before Huang Huang Renlong finished speaking, he heard a heaven-shaking loud noise, and the earth trembled.

Immediately afterward, dust filled the sky, and some tents close to the front line were also blown into the sky.

"Go and check quickly, what happened at the front?"

After eating a mouthful of dust, Huang Huang Renlong asked furiously.

The sound came from the artillery position; such a big commotion was clearly not a good thing.

……

"General, just now a cannon exploded, detonating the nearby ammunition.

Perhaps because the cannons were gathered too densely and too much ammunition was placed nearby, the entire artillery position was overturned.

Not only did the artillery suffer heavy losses, but the nearby troops were also implicated, at least..."

Before the guard could finish speaking, Huang Huang Renlong headed straight for the artillery position.

By this time the dust had dissipated, and before his eyes were corpses all over the ground and the wailing of the wounded.

The scene was truly too tragic; even though he was used to killing, he felt nauseous.

Kong Dou Yutang, who followed, performed even worse and vomited on the spot.

For a scholar like him to face the bloodiness of the battlefield was truly difficult.

"Which bastard arranged this, why let the cannons be together and stack so much ammunition?"

Huang Huang Renlong asked angrily.

This is a typical technical disaster.

Cannons exploding from overuse is not a new thing.

Anyone who knows a little about artillery technology knows that after using cannons for a period of time, the barrels must be cooled down.

If the temperature is too high, then use must be suspended.

Setting up an artillery position and maintaining a safe distance between adjacent cannons is even more basic common sense.

Moving all the ammunition to the artillery position to stack it is even more of a taboo among taboos.

A series of technical errors directly led to the disaster.

"General, the one responsible for commanding the artillery is Captain Zhou.

After arranging the tasks, he took people out to recruit soldiers, and he is no longer in the camp at this time!"

After getting this answer, Huang Huang Renlong was so angry he wanted to vomit blood.

"Damn Zhou the Skin-Peeler, I shouldn't have believed his ghost stories!"

(End of chapter)