Chongzhen Undergraduates

I don't know how much money was spent on the cannons defending the city of Liaodong alone.The manufacturing cost of a cannon needs two to three thousand taels, while the salary of a soldier is only a dozen taels a year.

This is just the normal price, not counting the failure rate during the cannon casting process.In fact, Daming's cannon-casting technology is very backward. Even if the cannons of the Francine Kingdom are successfully imitated, only three or four of the ten cannons can be successfully cast.

Later, Huang Taiji paid a lot of money to hire Westerners to cast cannons, and he also acquired some craftsmen from Denglai to improve the technique of casting cannons, with a success rate of [-]%.

As a result, Hou Jin's firearms began to surpass Daming in an all-round way.What Hou Jin surpassed was not the style of weapons, but the quality of the same weapons was enhanced to ensure the normal use of troops.

"It seems that Duoduo didn't attack with all his strength." Zhu Youjian calmed down. It's useless to get angry about this kind of thing, so he can only find another way.

"Yeah, it's been fighting for a whole day, and they didn't even send the God's Blessed Army. This Duoduo is probably consuming our army's firearms."

After fighting for a whole day, apart from the red-clothed cannons outside the city that were still bombarding the city walls, the Mongolian cavalry were camping and searching the surrounding villages.

Houjin's Eight Banners guarded lazily at several exits of the West Mountain, while the Tianyou Army seemed to be walking around the East Mountain.It is obvious that Duoduo knows the subordinates of the Ming Army like the back of his hand.

"You said, what if we rushed out now?" Zhu Youjian looked at Zuo Maodi with some expectation.

"No, if you rush out at this time, Doduo will withdraw immediately. Our army can capture a few prisoners of the Haozhou soldiers at most, and it will not hurt the Houjin army at all."

Zuo Maodi shook his head, and continued: "Only when Dongshan kills Duoduo, will he spend his money."

"What about eating later? It's impossible for 10,000+ people to eat dry food. They can't all be hungry, so what kind of combat power will they have tomorrow? There can't be fires in the Western Mountains, and it's easy to expose the strength of our army."

"No, I thought that since Duoduo already knew that there was an ambush in Xishan, he might as well light a fire and cook, but he didn't want to light a lot of fire."

"I have a way!" Zhu Youjian remembered the method he learned in the army of later generations.

In the evening, all the camps in the Western Mountains were busy. The excavated earthen stoves were far apart. The chimneys were buried in the ground, and then a shallow ditch was dug. The smoke slowly spread along the shallow ditch. Then it rose into the woods and disappeared with the mist of the whole mountain.

Tanma from Duoduo observed the west mountain from a distance, and came out of a mountain depression, dozens of green smoke rose into the sky, but no large amount of smoke was found in other places. Tanma estimated the amount of smoke, and quickly reported it to the Dodo.

"My lord, could it be that the Ming army cheated and only made a part of the stove?" Kong Youde was suspicious, he was a family slave of three surnames, he had more minds than anyone else, and he would not survive today.

"A stove with more than a dozen puffs of green smoke can feed hundreds of soldiers? Even if they cheat and use it in rotation, they will not be able to cook for 10 people in one night."

According to normal logic, Doduo's calculations were not wrong. The Ming army must have cheated with just such a small amount of cooking, but Doduo felt that the soldiers in Xishan would not exceed [-] at the most exaggerated thought.

......

"Your Majesty, please have another bowl of mutton soup. This thing keeps out the cold. It's cold in the mountains at night, so it's warm to eat." Zuo Maodi was holding a wooden ladle, gnawing on a mutton bone non-stop.

"Order, all the soldiers must have enough to eat tonight. Lu Jiude is fine, this Fengyang sheep is quite delicious, he stays here to enjoy every day."

"It's still wise for the emperor to hide all the livestock around here in Xishan in advance. Otherwise, Duoduo and the others will be given a lot of money."

"Why don't you hide them? They can't be raised in Fengyang City." Zhu Youjian ate the leg of lamb and beef at the same time. How do you fight if you don’t have enough to eat?”

Zuo Maodi secretly had a dark stomach: Daming fought so many battles before, why didn't the soldiers even eat a shred of meat?If you win, you can barely eat the stew, but if you lose, you can't even get vegetable leaves.

The logistics conditions of the Ming army were very difficult. It was a farming civilization, and the supply of meat was always insufficient. It was not enough for officials to eat. It would be good if the soldiers had food to eat.

Hou Jin's side was not so good. When he came to the hinterland of the Central Plains, except for Duoduo who had some dried meat to eat, most of his soldiers were eating cold pancakes.

"Xd, what did you do? You can't catch a sheep around Fengyang?" Duoduo cursed angrily as he looked at the hard dried meat.

"My lord, the servants searched all the villages ten miles away, not to mention the sheep, they didn't even catch a chicken." The Mongolian army leader was very innocent, and they did their best.The people around Fengyang have all withdrawn, and the only meat left is probably rats.

"They must all be in the city. When I conquer Fengyang City, I will eat mutton for three days."

"My lord, Xishan has not noticed a lot of green smoke rising, and the previous green smoke disappeared shortly after nightfall."

"Okay! It seems that there are not many ambush troops in Xishan. The Ming army is just timid. The main force is all huddled in the city and dare not come out. We can do a big job. Hahaha!"

After listening to the report of visiting the horse, Duoduo threw away the bowl and chopsticks, and grabbed his bald gourd, feeling overjoyed.

The march of the Hou Jin army was mules and horses, but the real logistical support could not rely entirely on mules and horses, so most of their battles still depended on the enemy, that is, they grabbed wherever they fought.

Some materials such as grain and grass were carried, but it was impossible to carry cattle and sheep to fight for meat supply.This is not a grassland.

......

The day's battle was over, Li Datao was still holding on to his binoculars, he had already found his brother when it was getting dark.Vigorously alive, obviously not injured, and in good spirits, it seems that he was praised by a general opposite.

There was also a small-scale battle that night, thinking that Fengyang City was sending supplies to Dongshan, and was attacked by the Houjin army. retreat.

On the entire Dongshan Mountain, it was another hot night.The peasants are rushing to repair the fortifications, and the soldiers who have fought for a day are eating hot meals.

Da Tao was holding an earthen bowl, which was specially sent by the cooking team for dinner. He grabbed the meat in the bowl and chewed happily.The soldiers at the observation post thought they would eat dry food tonight, but they didn't expect that they could eat better than New Year's Eve on the battlefield.

"Da Tao, is your brother alright?" the squad leader asked concerned. They just found out that the officer who came over during the day was actually the commander-in-chief who commanded all the soldiers in the entire West Mountain. It was said that he was older than Commander Huang.

This Li Datao actually won the award of the commander-in-chief. This is the master who will be promoted and make a fortune in the future. Everyone is willing to get closer to him now.

"Hey, it's good. I saw him eating just now." Da Tao grinned, feeling very at ease.

"Boom!" Li Datao, who was dozing off in the middle of the night, was shaken by the sound of a cannon.At the foot of Dongshan Mountain on the opposite side, countless shouts have been heard, and the enemy army has begun to attack at night.

"Quick! Look at the battle situation on the other side." The squad leader Hou hurriedly urged Li Datao.

"I can't see it, it's too dark. I only saw some flashes of fire, and it seems that they have already attacked halfway up the mountain." Li Datao was very anxious, and he searched anxiously along various defensive positions.

The fighting there was already very intense, and he saw the flames of several explosions.At this time, the entire Dongshan area was filled with firecrackers and shouts, and there was nowhere to find a quiet place.

Chapter 1 Eighty: Battle of the Western Mountains

The battle on Dongshan lasted in the middle of the night. From the mountainside to the foot of the mountain, the two sides fought repeatedly. In some places, the Jin soldiers were even killed by the Ming army to the foot of the mountain.

At dawn, Li Datao saw the tragic scene of Dongshan.The halfway up the mountain was dilapidated, there were corpses everywhere, and there were destroyed stone walls everywhere.Large and small stones and weapons were discarded along the way up the mountain. These stones were obviously pushed down the mountain from the stone wall.

Several dilapidated military flags were planted on the third line of defense on the hillside, and three or five wounded comrades were relying on the ruined walls to bandage each other.

"Quickly, report to the company commander, this battle was too miserable." The squad leader was also shocked, no one had ever seen such a scene.

Da Tao's eyes were red. He had already seen his injured brother. There were only three comrades around him, who were still desperately resisting the attack of a group of enemy troops.

Dali's physical strength has been seriously overdrawn, and the hill he guards, the shorter one, is also the one with the most unfavorable terrain.The enemy's attack is the fiercest and craziest.As long as the third stone wall is crossed, it will be the two lines of defense on the top of the mountain.

The firecrackers have been out of use for a long time, the iron cannon had to be carried by two people, and the three-eyed blunderbuss had already exploded.The remaining two people were all wounded, and they could barely hold a single knife, but they couldn't operate a firearm at all.

"Brothers, quickly push the stone and kill these bastards." Li Dali kicked a stone fiercely, and kept trying to hit the broken stone wall with his shoulder.

The stone rolled down the hillside, but was dodged by the enemy.A group of enemy troops with knives and guns was approaching step by step. Behind the group of enemies, the Tianyou Army was holding matchlock guns and aiming at the stone wall.

"Boom!" A blunderbuss from the Tianyou Army fired, and the iron pellet hit Li Dali's side. He didn't even hide, and continued to throw stones down the mountain.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!" With three shots in a row, Li Dali's arm went numb, the cotton armor failed to block the iron shot of the firecracker, and a new wound was added to his left arm.

"Brother, run back quickly." Da Tao yelled in his heart anxiously, he only dared to yell in his heart, the nearest enemy army was not far from the outpost, and the entire mountain was covered with enemies.