Perhaps stimulated by the red and blue flags on the city, or fearing that something might change later, the Ming army took the lead in launching an offensive against Cangzhou City shortly after gathering outside the city.
About two thousand Ming troops were divided into two groups and attacked the two gates on the south side of Cangzhou City in a pincer-like manner, one large and one small.
There were hundreds of Ming troops on horseback running back and forth near the east gate of the city. Although it was obviously just a feint attack, the defenders did not dare to be careless.
These three city gates had all collapsed and been damaged during the earlier siege by the Fifth Lu Division. They can be said to be the three weakest locations in the city defense at present. However, at this time, the offensive and defensive situation changed, and it became a challenge for the Haihan Army to defend the city. A headache.
It was obviously not the first time for the commander of the Ming Army to deal with the Haihan Army. The charging Ming Army did not use flesh and blood to face the guns and artillery of the Haihan Army. Instead, they erected many large shields in front of the formation to cover the Ming Dynasty. The army advanced towards the city wall.
This shield is so big that it can no longer be operated by a single person. Rather than calling it a shield, it would be more appropriate to call it a shield vehicle.
Each shield is made of several calf-thick logs arranged side by side. The shield is five feet high and three and a half feet wide, and can provide cover for a team of about ten people. There is a wheel hub underneath and a diagonal brace at the rear, which is pushed by soldiers behind it.
Some shields are also covered with a layer of moist sand in front of them to further enhance their defense.
There are also several relatively large shield vehicles, more than ten feet high, divided into upper and lower floors. Archers and musketeers on the upper floors pop up to shoot from time to time.
Shen Zhixiang frowned when he saw this scene on the top of the city. These siege equipment were obviously not made immediately after the Ming army arrived in Cangzhou. It seemed that the Ming army had been planning a counterattack at least two or three days ago.
In other words, if the production of these siege equipment had not been delayed, perhaps the Ming army would have launched the siege earlier.
Although these movable bunkers are bulky in appearance and have a small protective area, they are really effective. It was difficult for the Haihan Army's rifles to directly penetrate the logs at a longer distance, and most of the shots just tickled the logs' large shields.
The number of artillery pieces of the defenders in the city is very limited, and such moving targets are not so easy to hit. These large shields are often several feet apart. If the Haihan army fired five or six cannons, it would be considered pretty good if they could hit the target once or twice.
It was not until the Ming army pushed the fighting distance to within a hundred feet that the Haihan army's weapon advantage gradually became apparent.
Several consecutive artillery shells hit the large wooden shield, blowing it into a sky full of sawdust, and the Ming army hiding behind was inevitably killed and injured.
However, the Ming army was superior in strength, and dozens of large shields still withstood the firepower of the defenders and moved closer to the ruins of the city gate. The original city gate is no longer visible here, only a pile of rubble.
Although the Haihan Army has organized manpower to carry out emergency repairs on the ruins of the collapsed city gate in the past few days, it is impossible to restore it to its original state. It only fills the gap in the city wall with bricks and stones. If the attacker wants to enter the city, he must first From here, we climbed up the steep slope of rubble to the city wall.
Naturally, the heavy wooden shield could not be pushed up. The Ming army had no choice but to give up protection when they got here, and rushed up with the muskets on the top of the city.
At this time, the mines that Shen Zhixiang had his engineers bury in the rubble in advance came into play. Several successive explosions overturned dozens of Ming soldiers, accompanied by the screams of the injured, and broken limbs and arms flying everywhere. Regarding the explosive power of landmines, the cotton armor worn by the Ming army basically did not provide much protection. Even if they did not step on the landmines, as long as they were hit by shrapnel or gravel, they would often be killed or injured.
Almost all the first group of people who rushed to the front lost their combat effectiveness in an instant, which inevitably greatly dampened the morale of the Ming army. No one knew how many explosives were buried under this pile of rubble. After a moment's hesitation, they were knocked down by bullets fired from the top of the city.
While the Ming troops huddled together below the city, the defenders on top of the city threw several grenades in unison. After the grenades that landed in the crowd exploded, another group of people fell. The Ming army that was attacking the city finally could not withstand such large casualties and began to retreat.
Because there were no passages in and out of the city from the entire south of the city, Shen Zhixiang did not give orders to pursue the victory. Moreover, the large wooden shields that were not destroyed were pulled back by the remaining Ming army. These bunkers allowed them to withdraw from the battlefield with dignity. The defenders might not be able to get a good deal if they really went out of the city to pursue them.
But the victory in the first battle did not make Shen Zhixiang feel much relieved. He knew that this was just the first wave of offensive that defeated the Ming army, and it was mostly just a trial. And since the other party has organized a counterattack against Cangzhou, it is probably impossible for them to withdraw their troops hastily.
In the brief battle just now, the Haihan Army still suffered sporadic casualties. The Ming army under the city hid behind the shield wall and kept firing cold spears and arrows. In the end, they still shot a few unlucky guys.
The troops and ammunition in the city are very limited, and Shen Zhixiang must plan carefully to hope to survive until a few days later. Previously, the Ming army stepped into the mine formation. Although the killing effect was quite good, Shen Zhixiang estimated that about half of the mines had been detonated this time.
The few mines the defenders had were all buried in the ruins of the two gates in the south of the city before the war started. Now there is no way to fill them. The Ming army will attack once or twice at most, and they will find that the mine array has been destroyed. It broke automatically.
Shen Zhixiang had to seize the lull in the battle and command the civilians to strengthen the city defenses at these two places where the Ming army must attack.
Fortunately, there seemed to be no heavy weapons in the Ming army's formation. Otherwise, if they were to bombard the city, the few small cannons of the defenders would really be a bit unsatisfactory.
As expected, the Ming army had no intention of giving up. That afternoon, the Ming army launched another wave of offensive.
I don't know if they judged that the defenders' strength was limited. This time the Ming army invested more troops, and the feint attack and harassment in the east of the city became an actual attack. Shen Zhixiang had to let Sun Quanming's reserve team go into battle and let it resist the Ming army in the east direction of the city.
This time the Ming army's offensive was more fierce than the previous one, and they seemed to have found a way to restrain the mine array - using multiple ladders to set up on the steep slope of the city gate ruins, and then climbing up the ladder, in order to avoid Step on a mine planted in the ruins.
Although this method is definitely not as fast as climbing a steep slope directly, it is indeed an effective solution.
Seeing this, Shen Zhixiang could only increase the number of troops on top of the city and use firepower output to suppress the Ming army's strength advantage.
After the second round, it was already dusk. Although the Ming army did not successfully attack the city, they were only a few feet away.
The situation of the defenders was not very good either. There were already dozens of casualties among the troops participating in the battle. If there was to be another battle tomorrow, the Pingdu Militia Company and the North Korean Cavalry, both reserve groups, would also have to go into battle.