Chapter 3261
On the south bank of the Yangtze River, the rumbling of artillery continued, and the Haihan Army's offensive in Xiangshan continued.
Yan Chujie raised his wrist and checked the time. An hour had passed since he ordered the attack on Xiangshan, but the speed of the front's advance was not satisfactory.
The fighting will of the defenders on the mountain was quite tenacious. Although they were suppressed by Haihan's artillery fire, there were still many soldiers hiding behind the fortifications made of stones and logs. From time to time, they stuck their heads out and fired cold shots to block the advancement of Haihan's infantry.
The Haihan Army had to use more grenades to clear out the defenders hiding in the mountains and forests. Although the results were good, the battle line was still dozens of feet away from the fortress on the top of the mountain.
The defenders in Zhenjiang City have shown no sign of leaving the city to call for reinforcements. Perhaps they are waiting for nightfall before making plans. However, it is obvious that they cannot hold on for too long with just the strength of Xiangshan.
Seeing dusk approaching, Yan Chujie was worried that if he waited until dark, his side might suffer more casualties, and he did not want to leave the Ming army in Zhenjiang City with a chance to attack at night, so he ordered to further increase the intensity of the bombardment to destroy the mountain as soon as possible. There are few remaining fortifications.
All difficulties on the battlefield stem from insufficient firepower. As long as the firepower is stronger, it will be enough to crush everything, and the small elephant mountain is no exception.
After pouring hundreds of artillery shells on the mountain, the defenders, who suffered numerous casualties, still could not hold on anymore. The Haihan Army finally managed to capture Xiangshan before dark.
The casualties suffered by the defenders were quite heavy. After the battle, the battlefield was cleared, and only more than 200 people were left alive. According to prisoners of war, there were about 1,200 defenders deployed here before the war.
The nearly 1,000 lives lost in Xiangshan were not in vain. They not only consumed a large amount of ammunition of the Haihan Army, but also successfully delayed the offensive of the Haihan Army and bought Zhenjiang City a night's buffer time.
Although Xiangshan was finally captured at a relatively low cost of casualties, Yan Chujie's mood did not become easier.
The fighting will shown by the Ming army in the battle seemed to be more tenacious than when the two armies fought a few years ago. Such changes are by no means good news for the offense.
The only good thing is that judging from the weapons captured on the battlefield, there seems to be no obvious evolution in the equipment level of the Ming army. Firearms are still dominated by old-style flintlock guns and small-caliber muzzle-loading cannons. These weapons alone are obviously It is still difficult to confront the Haihan Army head-on.
Yan Chujie believes that this may not only be the reason for the stagnant level of Ming's military industry. After all, there are signs that Ming has also secretly purchased a lot of Haihan equipment through various channels in recent years and copied it.
However, given the financial situation of the Ming Dynasty, even if it went to the level of military force, it would be difficult to meet the equipment needs and daily consumption of forming an all-firearms army. At most, it could barely produce a few elite troops of a limited scale.
Ordinary troops can probably only continue to use old equipment to fight, just like the Ming army that was just wiped out in Xiangshan.
It was getting late, and it was unrealistic to rush to Zhenjiang City overnight, so Yan Chujie ordered to camp in Xiangshan and continue to march to Zhenjiang City tomorrow.
After Yan Chujie had dinner, he went around the troops participating in the battle today and visited the wounded. Then he returned to the big tent and called a meeting with the officers to discuss tomorrow's siege strategy.
The value of Zhenjiang City lies in guarding the Yangtze River waterway, but also because of its riverside location, the Haihan Army can launch attacks on the city from the river. This kind of combat plan can only be implemented by the Haihan Army, and others cannot learn it even if they want to.
The next day, when the sky was just getting dark, the Ming army guarding the city of Zhenjiang suddenly discovered that a large number of Haihan warships appeared on the river north of the city.
The distance from Dingbo Gate in the north of the city to the bank of the Yangtze River is only about one mile, which means that the northern line of Zhenjiang City is within the attack range of these Haihan warships on the river. According to common sense, it is impossible for artillery on warships to pose a threat to Zhenjiang City from the river. The city wall defense line on the north side is enough to deal with landing enemy troops. Haihan's armed fleet has always been active at sea and rarely enters inland rivers. Therefore, before this, no one would consider the bizarre scene of Haihan's fleet bombarding Zhenjiang City on the Yangtze River.
The Ming army that broke camp and left Xiangshan quickly arrived at the east of the city.
The attack direction of the Haihan Army was very clear, namely the east and north directions of Zhenjiang City.
At three o'clock in the morning, a firework rose from the Haihan army array in the east of the city, reaching a height of tens of feet, then exploded in the air, flashing a red fire.
After the signal was sent, the Haihan Army launched attacks from both land and water directions simultaneously.
Naturally, the curtain started with traditional artillery tactics. At first, the Ming army defending the city thought that the east side must be the main attack direction of the Haihan army. However, they did not expect that after the battle began, the intensity of the artillery fire from the river would be even greater.
The reason is also very simple. The number of naval guns in this row of warships docked on the river is far greater than the number of artillery in the army positions to the east. Although the range of most naval guns is less than two miles, it is enough to hit the city wall on the near shore.
The main guns on the fore and aft decks of the Zhoushan were even more powerful in terms of range and power. They aimed directly at the area where government offices and other government offices were built on high ground in the north of the city and bombarded them.
Although the defenders in the city immediately fought back, the number of artillery on the city wall was too few. The several-mile-long city wall on the north side only had more than ten cannons, and more than half of them had insufficient range to threaten Haihan on the river. fleet.
There were only two cannons with a long range. After firing seven or eight shots in succession, they were lucky enough to hit the mast of a Haihan battleship, triggering cheers on the city top.
However, the Haihan Army's retaliation came in an instant, and they immediately concentrated fire on the two threatening gun positions. A moment later, they were destroyed by the incoming artillery shells.
The tower on Dingbo Gate was also quickly set ablaze by the shelling, and billowing black smoke rose into the sky. It was estimated that the entire Zhenjiang City could see it.
Although the frequency of shelling from the eastern front was not that high, several large-caliber artillery designed to break the city still caused a lot of trouble to the defenders.
If it weren't for the barbican built from the side outside the city, this first wave of shelling would have been enough to send the city gates of Zhenjiang City flying into the sky.
Most of the Ming army had never experienced such a one-sided bombardment. Seeing that the buildings on the city wall were hit by the shells one by one, collapsed and burned, they did not dare to show their heads anymore.
After the firepower and fortifications at the top of the city were completely destroyed, the infantry officially came on stage and launched an attack on Zhenjiang City.
The Ming army could only force their way back to the city wall, preparing to meet the Haihan army attacking the city. But what they saw was not a long ladder erected at the top of the city, but several high platforms erected about a mile outside the city, the height of which had exceeded the city wall by a large margin. There were shadows on the high platform, and there seemed to be people moving up there.
Those were the snipers of the Haihan Army. They used the high-precision weapons in their hands to start harvesting the lives of the officers on the city wall.
(End of chapter)