Xiangcheng was named Si in the Spring and Autumn Period. Because King Xiang of Zhou once took refuge here, King Ling of Chu built a new city northwest of Si, hence the name Xiangcheng.

Geographically, it is the head of the Funiu Mountains in the east and the eastern edge of the Huanghuai Plain in the west. The southwest of the county is a rolling shallow mountain area, and the terrain of the whole county is high in the west and low in the east.

This is a very ordinary small county in Henan and a small agricultural city.

The Chu army's intelligence personnel had already figured out the details of Xiangcheng clearly. Zhang Shan was not underestimating the enemy or arrogant. He was confident. After mastering the detailed information, he was confident in controlling the situation.

There were more than 3,000 bandits in the city, and there were only a thousand soldiers who could barely be called, and there were about 500 strong servants. Although the city was also prepared, there were wooden pounding poles on the top of the city, their defenses were not even as good as the most ordinary official army.

The weakest part of Xiangcheng's defense is that although there are more than two feet of city walls, there are no cannons on the top of the city, nor are there any cannons on the top of the city. The bandits do not have a general cannon, let alone the red barbarian cannons.

"The bandits only have a few tiger squats, but I sold them, and each squat was sold for 100 taels of silver." Chen Guan reported.

However, the tiger squatted among the Chu army had long been completely eliminated, and it was not considered a cannon at all. The four-pound mountain grenade with the weakest firepower of the Chu army was far more numerous than these old-style tiger squats.

The staff of the General Staff Office quickly deduced it several times and quickly came up with several combat plans. Zhang Shan discussed the combat plan with his officers, made several modifications, and finally selected the simplest plan.

The cavalry was directly concentrated to bombard the south gate, and the horses and infantry were preparing to attack the city at any time after the city was broken. The light cavalry was responsible for surrounding the remaining gates to prevent the bandits from escaping, and harassing the city.

Outside the south gate, the cavalry artillery and mountain howitzers brought with them were concentrated. The gunners quickly set up artillery positions and made preparations in an orderly manner according to the artillery practice.

The horse-riding infantry had already dismounted, and their war horses were in the rear, and they lined up a column. Compared with the horizontal formation, this formation has a relatively weak firepower. However, it is easier to maintain the formation, especially suitable for charge, and it is not easy to disperse. However, this column also has some disadvantages compared with the horizontal formation, that is, its firepower is slightly weaker. And it is most afraid of the enemy's artillery.

A horizontal row, hit by solid shells, at most one or two people were killed or killed. However, when the column was hit by solid shells, sometimes a column line might be destroyed.

In dealing with a small county like Xiangcheng, which has neither artillery nor urn city, moat, sheep and horse wall and other fortifications, the Chu army does feel like killing chickens and using a ox knife.

The artillery trucks were pushed one by one to the position designated by the artillery consultant.

Because we clearly knew that there were no long-range weapons on the top of the city, the artillery soldiers pushed the artillery directly to a distance of 200 steps below the city. After approaching this distance, the slightly weakened range and firepower of the cavalry artillery and mountain grenades were also compensated.

With a roar, more than ten cavalry artillery and mountain dutch sounded one by one, bombing the shells at the city wall. The solid iron bullets hit the city wall, and the rammed earth wall immediately had large pieces of peeling off the soil.

The cavalry cannons fired solid iron bullets and bombarded the city walls. The mountain grenades began to change the shrunk bullets, and the shrunk bullets were fired after being reduced. They flew over the south gate city and exploded in the air. The bandits on the city immediately cried and called for their parents.

Although the servants standing at the top of the South Gate were led by Wang Jie, many of them were his old subordinates when he was in Qianhu Station. But even at the beginning, they were just a group of peasants and soldiers. Never had ever seen such elite troops as the Chu army or such new tactics.

The city wall made of loess was not strong. After being hit by a fierce bombardment from the Chu army artillery, it finally collapsed with a bang. The smoke spread out and a large gap appeared.

"Don't stop, continue, blow the hole bigger." Zhang Shan put down the Qianli Mile Mile, turned his head to the messenger and said. "Notify the infantry and make them ready. It's time for them to attack soon."

After receiving the order, the artillery continued to fire. These artillery soldiers had been trained for a long time in live ammunition and under the guidance of experienced instructors, artillery staff and non-commissioned officers, they could fire an artillery shell in an average of two minutes.

Especially this kind of bombardment at a distance of 200 steps greatly improves the originally low accuracy.

Half an hour later, a large hole of forty or fifty steps wide appeared in the South Gate wall.

The whistle sounded, and the artillery soldiers covered in smoke finally stopped. Everyone was gasping for breath, their faces were covered with black ashes, and white breath was still coming from their heads.

The charge has sounded.

The horse-riding infantrymen who had been waiting for a long time were all impatient, and under the leadership of their respective superiors, they lined up in a column and began to trot towards the gap.

Wang Jie lay behind a pile of bricks, stones, and slags on the city wall, and finally waited until the sound of cannons stopped.

"General, the officers and soldiers are no longer slaughtering. They sent people to rush up." A bandit's forehead was stained with blood and ran to report loudly.

Wang Jie shook the soil on his body, held the big knife on his body tightly, and shouted at the back, "Brothers, follow me and block the gap."

A group of bandits rushed up shouting.

In the distance, the infantry had rushed dozens of steps away.

"Ding!"

The trotting Chu infantry stopped. They sorted out their formation as quickly as possible. As the whistle sounded again, they knocked the trigger one after another, and rows of lead shots shot out.

Although the flintlock gun is much more advanced than the combing gun, it still has many disadvantages. First, it is that it cannot be continuously fired, and secondly, the replacement time is not short, and accuracy is always a big problem.

Therefore, the Chu army's infantry combat finally formed concentrated use of infantry, using volleys to make up for the poor accuracy, and trying to rely on the number of volleys to enhance lethality.

After a dense shot of lead bullets, another round of shooting immediately followed by the third round. After the third round of shooting, the first group of musketeers who fired the gun had completed the loading.

Advance, shoot, advance, shoot.

After several rounds of shooting, they were approaching the gap and were very close to the bandits.

"Get the bayonet!"

"Get the bayonet!"

"Get the bayonet!"

The order was passed down layer by layer, and Shi Yuan, a second-class cavalry soldier, quickly pulled out the bayonet from his bayonet cover, put it on the muzzle, and circled it hard to clamp the Kashan tightly.

In the blink of an eye, muskets immediately turned into 1.8 meters tall spears.

The wind blew, and the smoke filled the gunpowder dissipated.

There was no resistance at the gap. In the few rounds of fierce volleys just now, the servants led by Wang Jie suffered severe damage. They only supported them for a moment and collapsed, either dead or injured, or turned around and fled.

Wang Jie was shot to death directly.

Shi Yuan and the others easily crossed the gap and entered Xiangcheng.

"Don't kill!"

"Surrender to avoid death!"

"Report. Xiangcheng has been taken away, and the thief leader Wang Jie was shot and killed on the spot. Yu Jiduo has abandoned his weapons and surrendered."

"Very good." Zhang Shan had a smile on his face when he heard the report. But it was not a surprise, it was expected. "Send troops to continue to search the whole city. Clean the battlefield, let the other brothers enter the city, maintain good order, and start making lunch."

The battle in Xiangcheng ended quickly. The Chu army used only two targets to defeat the three thousand Xiangcheng bandits, and the city was broken and surrendered. More than 3,000 bandits were killed in this battle, and less than 100 battlefields were less than 100. However, the city wall was blasted away in a short time, which was the main reason for their rapid collapse. In addition, Wang Jie's death in the battle made them no longer have the will to resist.

Zhang Shan had no intention of killing these prisoners.

"Contract the weapons, carefully identify and register, and then break up the pass and enter the prison camp to guard the prisoner camp."

According to the instructions given to him by Liu Jun, these people were sent to mines and roads. There is also a special term called labor reform. It is similar to being exiled to the army, but the labor reform period will be finalized based on the length of time they have been with the thief and the degree of crimes they have committed. Moreover, during the labor reform process, a certain sentence reduction will be given according to their performance.

"Our Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau is now short of labor. There are many new mines there. I urgently need labor. Now I have arrested 3,000 yuan, so I have to be happy there." A staff officer said with a smile.

"What's the use of three thousand people? I heard that the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau is now extremely large, and it is a complete set of industries, including mining, iron and steel making, and building weapons. There are hundreds of thousands of people in the entire Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau. Three thousand people are not enough for them to get stuck in their teeth." Another staff officer said.

"Stop talking about this." A senior staff officer came over, "Hushuai spoke and asked them to immediately rectify all the official documents in the county government and seize the time to register the seized materials."

"Xiao Zhang, how many points do you want to copy this notice and bring a few brothers to post it in the city."

"Xiao Wang, please bring a few brothers and invite all the gentry and big merchants in the city according to this list. Remember, you must be polite!"

County government office.

It turned out that Wang Jie occupied this place and became his general's mansion, but now it has become Zhang Shan's temporary headquarters. Zhang Shan sat there, listening to the reports of Chen Guan and several staff officers.

Xiangcheng has been taken down, but the situation in Xiangcheng is not optimistic.

The city is short of food and supplies, especially the people who are hungry, who are both local and foreign, and have neither jobs nor money.

"We must restore local order immediately, start spring farming, and resettle these people." After all, this place is not the original Liaodong, and it is not enough to capture the city and demolish it. The most important thing is to restore production and order. And these are also inseparable from the local gentry and businessmen.

The well-known wealthy families in Xiangcheng soon came, including officials who retired, scholars, scholars, etc., landlords and merchants, as well as clerks in the government, the so-called "Land of Land" refers to these people.

"Please come here. First, because Xiangcheng is recovered, the countryside needs to come out to maintain order and restore spring plowing. You are all local people's hopes. I hope you can set an example and take the lead in maintaining this critical period."

A group of Xiangcheng people nodded quickly.

Zhang Shan picked up the teacup and took a sip, moistened his throat, and continued, "There is another thing. There are many victims in Xiangyang who are short of food and clothing. I need everyone to lend a helping hand at this time and bring these brothers and compatriots. I know that you still have a lot of food stored in your home, and everyone has taken out excess food to help the victims."

"Don't worry, we will not levy your grain in vain, two pieces of silver dollars and one stone of grain. At this price, we will buy grain with cash, and we will not lose a penny or arrears."
Chapter completed!