Chapter 63: 1 The Fall of the City

Chapter 63: 1 The Fall of the City

Chapter 63: A wave of cities destroyed

The Zhong Camp and the Heng Camp were lined up a hundred steps away from the Baijiawei. If they were any closer, they would be within the range of the muskets in thewei.

The earthen embankment is full of private salt dealers, who have no idea about regular combat tactics.

Seeing the large number of government troops arriving, the people in the village were in chaos, shouting and screaming, and hurriedly closed the village gate.

The farmhands carried muskets, bows and arrows, swords and spears and ran up the earthen wall in a disorderly manner. A small leader kept restraining them and prepared to defend the city.

Shao Hengzhong took a look and found that the earthen wall of this dike was much shorter than that of Qiwei, and there were fewer people than Qiwei. The only advantage was that there were muskets, but there were not many. It was good enough if one-third of the people had muskets.

Well, as long as we dare to charge forward under the charge of musket bullets, my Hengzi Battalion can take over this town by ourselves.

During the battle of Qinhu Lake, the mission of the Heng Battalion was either to block the exits or to conduct a dragnet search after the battle, which made these veterans very angry.

Alas, who made us practice shooting for so short a time?
We must perform well in this siege. The Heng Camp is composed of brave men who are not afraid of fighting. We must not let the Zhong Camp look down on us.

On this side, the Heng Battalion, which was ordered to attack the city, was ready to go, while on the other side, the fire support force of the Zhong Battalion, composed of 200 veterans led by Song Laosan, had already opened fire.

The farmhands who had rushed up to the city in a hurry and without order were knocked down one by one. After more than twenty people had died, they all lay down obediently at the same time.

A horn sounded in the Huai Army, and the siege troops of the Zhong Camp and Heng Camp, which had been prepared long ago, rushed up carrying ladders.

Shao Hengzhong of the Heng Battalion led the team personally, and Lin Bozai of the Zhong Battalion was still the vanguard, each leading 300 people to charge.

A distance of one hundred steps is one hundred and fifty meters, and it took less than a minute to charge to the city.

What? He can run 100 meters in less than 10 seconds? Ahem, he's carrying a ladder and a gun, and there's no sprint champion in the stormtroopers.

Siege ladders are traditional weapons. They were used by the Heng Battalion when it attacked Qiwei. On the Zhong Battalion side, they had them in the warehouse when the militia base was still called Yangjiawei, but they had never been used before.

Those holding muskets on the city wall were relatively elite. More than a dozen of them were killed by the fire support team in the first wave, but there were still more than forty guns that could be used.

They charged forward carrying ladders, white smoke rose from the city walls, more than forty musketeers lay down and fired, and a volley of shotgun fire came.

The matchlock gun is basically impossible to aim, and there is a chance of misfire when firing in a volley.

More than eighty people in the front carried eight ladders and charged forward. Only six of them died before the ladders were placed on the city wall.

It takes a very slow time to reload the matchlock musket. We had just stuffed the black powder in and were using cleaning rods to push lead into the muzzle, while the attackers on the other side were crouching down and climbing up the city wall along the ladder.

The fundamental reason was that there were too few people on the city wall, and the matchlock muskets could only fire in volleys, and could not achieve continuous firepower.

The muskets could be fired while the attackers were lying down, but the bows and arrows could not be fired while the attackers were lying down, and the casualties of the siege troops ended there.

When attacking Qiwei, the ladders were vertical and climbing the city wall was very difficult.

The earthen embankment here was much lower, and the ladder was a slope. The pioneer who was setting up the ladder held it, and the following soldiers, holding guns, almost trotted up to the city.

On Song Laosan's side, he would shoot anyone who showed their heads on the city wall. When the first batch of eight soldiers rushed to the top of the city wall, everyone on the city wall was lying down.

Eight guns were fired at the prone man at close range, almost shooting at his head.

Subsequent soldiers continued to enter the city, and most of the defenders on the city did not even have the chance to stand up and kneel to surrender, and were beaten to death.

The siege lasted less than ten minutes before the city was breached.

Shao Hengzhong and Lin Bozai are the two forwards.

Lin Bozai bravely rushed to the top of the city wall first.

Shao Hengzhong was different from Lin Bozai. He was holding a revolver and supervising the battle behind the 300 Heng Battalion soldiers who were participating in the siege. When he went up to the city, the battle was over.

The gate of the weir was opened, and more than a thousand soldiers entered the weir. In a blink of an eye, the weir changed hands.

This time the city was captured too quickly, and the people in the dike had no chance to escape by boat from the canal wharf west of the dike and the Yangtze River wharf south of the dike, and were all wiped out.

Why is Baijiawei so easy to attack? Their private salt business is not doing well and they have no money.

The private salt trade on the canal has always been a taboo for the Qing Gang. As Hongmen disciples, they were able to intervene because they had joined the Qing Gang leader Hou Boqiu. Newcomers had no experience, no connections, and little money to make, so the walls of this embankment could not be built high or made of stone.

Making less money is relative. As long as it is related to "private salt", one can make much more money than Liu Erguaizi in Qiweizi who makes money by collecting head tax.

The spoils seized in Baijiawei this time are definitely more than those in Qiwei.

More than twenty "Green Eyebrow" salt-carrying ships alone were seized.

The bow of this ship is shaped like a bird's beak, and there are two green arcs above the bow, hence the name.

This three-masted wooden sailing ship is extremely fast, far superior to the small boats on Qinhu Lake that are paddled with oars. It will be much more convenient to transport troops in the future.

As for the sailors who steered the boats - the Huai Army had no shortage of sailors, and the Taizhou soldiers did not need any training, as almost all of them could steer a boat.

The gold, silver, and a large amount of smuggled salt seized in the village were counted and guarded by Haiqing. After Shao Quanzhong entered the village, the first thing he did was to gather the team and give out rewards.

Rewards must be given promptly to boost morale.

Shao Quanzhong stood with his hands behind his back and gave a speech, "Brothers! Those who charge bravely in battle must not suffer losses.

Brothers who died in battle, according to the rules we discussed earlier, will receive 80 taels of compensation, and 40 taels of compensation for their families every year, for five consecutive years. Shao will never break his promise! "

Not to mention that war is expensive, nearly two thousand taels of silver were gone in one go.

But you have to spend this money, otherwise who will charge for you next time? This is for the living soldiers to see.

"Log out first!"

A warrior from the Heng Camp and Lin Bozi stepped out, and both entered the city almost at the same time.

"The first person to reach the top will be rewarded with 500 taels each, and the first person to carry the ladder and charge will be rewarded with 10 taels each. I'll give it out now!"

The soldiers cheered together.

Paying money in war is the right way to go. Back then, the King Zhou of the Ming Dynasty carried gold to give out rewards on the spot. He relied on servants and ordinary men who were temporarily conscripted to stop the siege of Li Zicheng's old camp. Even if the gold was thrown, the King of Rebellion could be defeated.

Five hundred taels is a lot for the first person to land? Not much at all. Even though it is ten times the annual salary of a county magistrate, he is risking his life.

Since ancient times, those who killed generals, captured flags, and were the first to reach the top were rewarded the most. Li Rusong won the first prize of 5,000 taels of silver for defeating a rebellion. The Huai Army here was not that well-off, but they could not let down their guard.

After Shao Quanzhong distributed the bounties himself, he put his arm around his brother Bo Zai's shoulders and said, "Bo Zai, Bo Zai, I want to criticize you.

Even though you are a company commander with a monthly salary of only nine taels, is it difficult for you to be promoted to battalion commander? It won't be long.

The monthly salary for a battalion officer is fifty taels of silver, and the office salary is one hundred and fifty taels. You can easily earn more than two thousand taels a year.

You want to be a high-ranking official with a promising future, so learn to be loyal. Even if you are a vanguard, just supervise the battle from behind. Don't compete with your subordinates for the five hundred taels in the future."

"As ordered!"

Lin Bozai agreed readily, but it is not certain whether he will be obedient when the time comes.

"Report, we have captured the Hongmen Bai brothers who are the leaders of the village, and the twelve Liu clan members who escaped from Qiwei."

Shao Quanzhong smiled, but his words were not gentle at all, "Liu Erguaizi's clansmen will be executed on the spot, and the Bai brothers will be kept. I will see them later."

Shao Quanzhong killed prisoners and silenced them at Qiwei, which had created an irreconcilable feud with the Liu family. They had to be eradicated completely and there was no room for reconciliation.

Before meeting the Bai brothers, Shao Quanzhong made some preparations.

The Bai brothers were worried because they had heard from the Liu clan members they had joined that Shao Quanzhong was killing people in Qiweizi and was extremely cruel. Could they, the brothers, survive?
When the two brothers met Shao Quanzhong, Shao Quanzhong was wearing the official uniform of a sixth-rank military general.

Behind him were ten personal soldiers, wearing turbans on their heads, goose-feather swords on their waists, and wearing brand new double-breasted green camp military uniforms of the Qing Dynasty, with the two big words "Personal Soldiers" on them.

(End of this chapter)