In history, Yang Xiuqing had always been in charge of the affairs of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. If he hadn't been ambitious and tried to replace Hong Xiuquan, his achievements in life would have been much greater.
That was why Hong Xiuquan was extremely afraid of Yang Xiuqing in the wilderness. Hong Xiuquan had put Yang Xiuqing in the army from the beginning and didn't let him interfere in the affairs of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
However, Hong Xiuquan was an expert in creating doctrines, organizing sects, and playing politics. But when it came to governing the country, Hong Xiuquan was a complete layman.
Therefore, the three counties under the rule of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom weren't in a good economic situation. They were only managed by Hong Xiuquan's personal prestige.
The people under the rule of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom were extremely poor.
It was easy to change mountains and rivers, but it was hard to change one's nature.
Although Hong Xiuquan wasn't as extravagant and licentious as he was in his previous life, he couldn't help but enjoy himself. The idea of "sharing the world" that he had put forward in his previous life was also completely abandoned.
Hong Xiuquan in this life was an out-and-out supreme ruler.
…
Back on the battlefield, Yang Xiuqing led the troops to launch the third fierce attack on Mulan Fortress.
The battlefield was filled with smoke.
"Boom!"
Under the continuous bombardment of the cannons, the walls of Mulan Fortress were under great pressure.
The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's southern army was fearless. The soldiers held their iron shields fearlessly and swore to defend the four cannons with their lives. They were determined to blast a big hole in Mulan Fortress.
How could the cannons of the Ming Dynasty be easy?
In the rumbling sound, a big hole was finally blasted in a corner of the eastern wall.
"Aim at that big hole and blow it up!"
The commander of the cannons was excited. He had already seen the dawn of victory.
So, the four cannons fired at the same time. One after another, "Thunderbolt" bombarded the big hole. The crater on the city wall grew bigger and deeper.
Due to the shortcomings of the cannons of the Ming Dynasty, the accuracy of the cannons at this time was really poor. It was already extremely lucky that one of the four cannons hit the big hole.
During the Ming Dynasty, both guns and cannons were widely used. But why didn't they completely replace cold weapons with hot weapons like in the West?
There were four main reasons.
First, the cannons had to be able to fire "explosive shells".
Why? This was because only explosive bombs could transform a cannon from a siege weapon into a field weapon that could kill a large number of living targets. On the other hand, if it could only shoot solid iron balls, its lethality would naturally be limited.
A cannonball shot out and exploded into countless fragments, causing a large area of destruction.
The Ming Dynasty's "Poisonous Flame Flying Gun" had a barrel made of wrought iron and was filled with more than ten taels of gunpowder. The cannonball was cast from pig iron and was filled with "five taels of arsenic and sulfur poison". After igniting the gun, the cannonball would fly 300 meters away and explode, injuring people.
Unfortunately, this technology was not mature during the Ming Dynasty and was not widely used.
In the Qing Dynasty, not only did they not improve on this, but they also regressed. They switched to using solid iron lumps, and even stones and iron filings to replace the cannonballs.
Before the Westernization Movement, the power of the cannons of the Qing Dynasty was naturally child's play.
In the 1870s, Zuo Zongtang set out on an expedition to the west. In Shaanxi's Fengxiang, he discovered the "explosive cannonball" of the late Ming Dynasty. He could not help but sigh with emotion. "Sharp weapons have been in China for more than three hundred years. If someone had paid attention to them at that time, why would the Islanders be able to roam the seas unhindered for decades?"
The Manchurian Qing army paid a heavy price in the Opium War due to their conservative ideology on weapons and equipment. Before the Westernization Movement, during the two hundred years of the Qing Dynasty, firearms technology had regressed even more than in the late Ming Dynasty. Compared to the Ming Dynasty, the Manchurian rulers were ignorant.
Secondly, the cannons had to be quite mobile.
If the cannons were not mobile, it would be difficult to concentrate a large number of them. The cannons of the Ming Dynasty, whether it was the Crouching Tiger Cannon, the Francis Machine Gun, or the later Hongyi Cannon, were not mobile.
Although the Crouching Tiger Cannon wasn't big, it had to be nailed to the ground with a big iron nail before it could be fired. The Red Barbarian Cannon was originally a Portuguese naval cannon, weighing over a thousand catties. It was too cumbersome and could only be used to defend a city.
On the other hand, in the West, the cannons were of a suitable caliber and could be pulled by horses. In a short period of time, they could quickly form an artillery position. The Ming army also had horse-drawn cannon carriages, but the power of the cannons on the carriages was too small.
Just like the five cannons that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom transported from Tianjing, they had spent a lot of effort on the way. Otherwise, the number of cannons on the battlefield would not be five, but ten, or even more.
Thirdly, there must be a considerable number of flintlock troops.
Even matchlocks had a great advantage over bows and arrows, not to mention flintlocks that could fire four to five shots per minute. During Japan's Warring States period, Oda Nobunaga's flintlock three-shot was famous for a period of time.
Unfortunately, the Ming Dynasty's army never had a true firearm unit.
The large and small guns didn't have a unified standard, which was a huge burden on the logistics. Some guns even needed two people to operate on bamboo racks, which was extremely inconvenient.
Fourthly, the cannons had to have a certain level of fire control.
The so-called fire control referred to the use of instruments such as the gauge, ruler, and torque, as well as the mastery of the technique of loading ammunition. Without this, the accuracy of firearms was a joke.
Before a good gunner fired a cannon, he had to estimate how far the enemy was. Although he could estimate the distance from the size of the human figure through the telescope, he could accurately measure the distance using torque.
In the early years of Chong Zhen, the Ming army's imitation of the Red Barbarian Cannon had already entered the stage of mass production. However, the western method of using instruments to improve the accuracy of the cannon's aiming had always been the blind spot of many Ming gunners.
Hong Xiuquan had obtained the Ming Dynasty Cannon Manufacturing Technical Manual, but he naturally didn't have the ability to improve the Ming cannons. It was already extremely difficult to produce the cannons according to the manual.
Therefore, the four cannons of the Southern Army could be seen in the crosshairs.
The four cannons had been bombarding the city for the entire morning, but only eight of the cannons had accurately hit the crater on the city wall. The rest of the cannons had all missed.
Yang Xiuqing's face turned green with anger when he saw this, but he couldn't do anything.
In just one morning, the Southern Army had lost another six thousand men. The Southern Army had lost more than thirty thousand men in total, but there was no progress.
Yang Xiuqing's face turned even uglier when he thought of Hong Xiuquan's forceful reply. He ordered the army to hold their ground and not retreat to rest until the city wall was destroyed.
…
On the city wall of Mulan Fortress, Bai Qi's expression was unprecedentedly serious.
Although the enemy's cannons had yet to be effective, they had given Bai Qi a huge shock.
As a general from the Warring States period, Bai Qi was very unfamiliar with firearms. How could Bai Qi not be shocked when he saw that the enemy had pushed out a giant metal monster that could blast through the city wall that was several meters thick?
Bai Qi immediately realized that with the appearance of cannons, there would be a revolution on the battlefield in the future.
As a Divine General, Bai Qi would never be satisfied with the current situation and give up on learning and improving. After this battle, he would have to learn more about firearms.
It seemed that it was only a matter of time before the city wall was destroyed.
Bai Qi immediately gave the order to mobilize 10 Fortress Blade Carts and have them stand by the city walls to the north.
The Fortress Carts were used to block the city gate when the city gate was breached. The front wall was equipped with twenty-four steel knives, which could be used to push the carts to the gap of the city gate. It could kill the enemy and block the enemy's arrows and stones. This way, it would be difficult for the enemy to climb up and form a moving barrier.
Therefore, the Fortress Carts were the most useful emergency weapon when the city was breached.
The Mulan Fortress had adopted a complicated design for the city gate when it was first designed. Not only were there two continuous barbicans, but the main city gate was also blocked by a huge rock. The rock gate could only be lifted with the help of a machine.
This set of machine was specially improved after the Mo Family took over the fortress.
Therefore, for the Southern Army of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, if they wanted to break through the gate of the Mulan Fortress, it would be easier and more straightforward to bombard the city wall.
The only shortcoming of the Mulan Fortress was that it did not have a moat.
Now that the enemy was going to bombard the city wall, Bai Qi could only mobilize the Fortress Carts to organize the defense.
In addition, Bai Qi also sent a fierce general, Er Lai, to lead two Mountain Barbarian Heavy Infantry Brigades of the Third Division to be on standby near the northern city wall.
Once the city wall was breached, there would definitely be a bloody battle at the northern city wall.
Whether they could block the enemy's attack and defend the gap was the key to this battle. At this time, Bai Qi naturally mobilized the most elite troops to participate in the defense.
In the entire Shanhai City army, there was no Mountain Barbarian Heavy Infantry Brigade, so this iron wall was more suitable.
After everything was arranged properly, Bai Qi breathed a sigh of relief. He had already prepared for the worst.
…
At two o 'clock in the afternoon, the entire battle situation ushered in the biggest turning point.
"Boom!"
As an iron cannonball accurately hit the previous big hole, the section of the city wall on the east side finally collapsed, and a huge hole was blasted out.
Immediately, the Southern Army of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom let out a deafening cheer, as if they had won.
Yang Xiuqing's complexion also improved slightly. He knew that the morale at this time could be used. There was no need to wait until tomorrow. He immediately issued the order to use the hole in the city wall as a breakthrough point and launch the fiercest attack on the Mulan Fortress.
They had to win the battle.
The ones charging at the forefront were Li Xiucheng's troops.
"Kill!"
The young general, Li Xiucheng, led the vanguard troops, which were also the most elite infantry under his command, and immediately charged toward the big hole. His eyes were bloodshot, and he was unafraid of death.
The moment the city wall collapsed, the soldiers of Shanhai City cleared away the rubble at the fastest speed possible and pushed the two saber carts accurately into the hole.
Er Lai led the Mountain Barbarian Heavy Infantry Brigade and waited behind the Fortress Carts. The Rakshasa that Er Lai was sitting on let out a series of roars, and it could not wait to rush into the battlefield.
The most difficult offensive and defensive battle was about to begin in the narrow hole. (To be continued.)
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