Late Ming Dynasty: Oops, I am surrounded by the Donglin Party

Chapter 505: The Imperial Court’s Artillery is Too Weird

Through the telescope, Zhang Shikang saw forty artillery shells, most of which fell on the main force behind the enemy's artillery positions.

Under the huge inertia, no flesh and blood could stop it, and the ten-kilogram shell left more than twenty blood grooves in the enemy camp.

Wherever the shells passed, no matter whether the soldiers were wearing light or heavy armor, they were all torn to pieces by the huge impact force.

The bandit army on the other side of the river immediately fell into chaos.

Zhang Shikang frowned. He had been observing the enemy leader through the telescope.

But unfortunately, the enemy leader was lucky and was not hit by any shells.

"Reload quickly and keep fighting!" Zhang Shikang ordered again.

Ma Xianglin and Qin Yiming looked at each other and saw horror in each other's eyes.

It has such great power at such a long distance. If they had such artillery, why would they have risked their subordinates' lives to fight the enemy over the years?

Qin Liangyu also nodded with satisfaction. With these forty powerful cannons, perhaps the entire process of suppressing the bandits would be easier.

Ma Lingqi had no idea about firearms, nor did she understand any military tactics. All these years she had been focused on martial arts and had not paid much attention to anything else.

But seeing that her father and uncle were so surprised, she also opened her mouth and showed a surprised expression.

Qi Dazhu immediately began to order his gunners to clean the gunpowder residue in the barrel, load new gunpowder and fuse, and then wrap the cannonball with cloth and press the cannonball into the barrel with a special pestle.

The whole process took about two minutes.

There is no way around it. Even for a small cannon, all the necessary procedures must be followed. Although the old-style French cannon can be equipped with sub-cannons.

However, this new copper cannon has not had time to be modified, and the caliber of this cannon is too large, and it is not known whether the barrel will explode when using a submachine gun.

In just two minutes, the bandits on the other side of the river had no time to retreat. At Qi Dazhu's order, forty cannons opened fire again.

Another round of shelling began. This time, Qi Dazhu chose to focus on the enemies near the artillery on the opposite beach.

It was obvious that Qi Dazhu did not want the other party to take the artillery away when they evacuated.

On the other side of the river, Zhang Nengqi gritted his teeth. He never dreamed that the imperial army would have such a powerful weapon.

The distance was a full eight hundred steps. When did the imperial artillery become so powerful?

How can we fight a blocking war like this?

"General! Retreat quickly! The imperial court's artillery is too weird!" A personal guard pulled him and said.

"No, hurry up and pull those artillery back. We can't leave them behind. His Majesty will not forgive us!" Zhang Nengqi calmed himself and gave the order immediately.

This ultra-long-range bombardment not only caught Zhang Nengqi off guard, but also caused panic among the entire battlefield.

Zhang Nengqi ordered his troops to pull the artillery pieces, while ordering the rest of his troops to retreat.

But at this time, the artillery on the other side of the river opened fire again.

The soldiers and carriages responsible for pulling the artillery to the mudflats were all blown to the ground, and the mudflat position suddenly became a mess.

Some soldiers had their arms and legs blown off and rolled on the ground wailing.

One warhorse's entire butt was blown off. The horse fell to the ground, still struggling to stand up, with its intestines and other internal organs spilling all over the ground...

Some of the shells hit the gunpowder barrels, and somehow ignited the wooden gunpowder barrels, causing huge smoke.

"Don't worry about those cannons! Get out of here!"

Zhang Nengqi finally made up his mind that if the imperial court continued to fight for two more rounds, their morale would be destroyed.

So, more than 20,000 bandits, led by Zhang Nengqi, quickly retreated two miles.

On the other side of the river, seeing the enemy troops retreating decisively, Zhang Shikang decisively said to Qin Liangyu:

"General Qin, we can start crossing the river now."

Qin Liangyu immediately gave an order, and rows of white-flag soldiers began to board more than 50 troop transport ships.

The main force of the Guards is the Musketeers. This attack mode can only provide the maximum firepower output when a stable formation is formed.

Crossing the river is obviously very risky. Compared with the musket phalanx, the white-spear soldiers are better at individual combat under various conditions.

The white-flag soldiers began to board the ship, and Zhang Shikang did not let Qi Dazhu sit idle.

The artillerymen were still loading ammunition intensively, and soon all forty bronze cannons were loaded again.

Qi Dazhu immediately ordered the muzzle to be recalibrated and the target to be set back to the front row of the enemy troops that had run away.

He did not order the artillery to fire, but the warning was already given. His mission was clear: to protect the landing of his own troop transport ships.

If the bandits dare to come and stop us, they will surely be greeted by the wrath of large-caliber artillery.

As long as he can land the warship smoothly, his mission will be completed...halfway.

A quarter of an hour later, more than fifty troop transport ships, loaded with more than nine thousand White Spear Soldiers, set off.

Qin Liangyu, Ma Xianglin and others were instantly nervous, and even Zhang Shikang was a little nervous.

With these forty large-caliber artillery pieces, the troop transport ships no longer have to worry about being attacked while transporting troops.

What they were afraid of was that at the moment of landing, they had only more than 9,000 people, and it would take at least a quarter of an hour or even more to disembark and assemble.

If the bandits came with more than 20,000 people at this time, it would be a big question whether the more than 9,000 people could hold out.

After all, at this critical juncture, anyone who is not a fool would understand that if the nine thousand people could not hold on, they would most likely not be able to come back.

The chosen river was not wide, and the people sent by the Zheng family were also very knowledgeable about water transportation. They specially calculated the flow rate and started crossing the river more than a mile away from the selected landing site.

When the troop transport ship drifted to the other side, it happened to be on the devastated artillery position mudflat, which was within the range controlled by Qi Dazhu's artillery formation.

Time passed minute by minute, and half a quarter of an hour later the troop transport ship finally reached the other side, and some white-pole soldiers had already begun to jump off the warship.

At the same time, Zhang Nengqi, who was hiding in the distance, gritted his teeth and immediately led more than 20,000 of his own troops to launch a charge.

As Qin Liangyu and others worried, if they could not gain a firm foothold on the other side of the river, the more than 9,000 white-flag soldiers would not be able to return.

Zhang Nengqi knew very well that if he could not stop the enemy from landing, his operation would be a complete failure, and his adoptive father would not know how to punish him when he returned.

Another half a quarter of an hour later, Zhang Nengqi finally led his 20,000 men to engage in close combat with the White Spear Soldiers.

At this time, only about half of the White Spear Soldiers had disembarked from the troop transport ship, and had not yet completed the formation.

Boom—boom—

The forty bronze cannons fired again, and the shells exploded in Zhang Nengqi's team again, instantly leaving dozens of bloody grooves in the queue behind Zhang Nengqi.

Zhang Nengqi's eyes were wide with anger. At this point he was in a desperate situation and could only continue to order his men to charge towards the artillery fire.

The white-flag soldiers soon engaged in battle with the bandits.

……