Gao Hongtu listened quietly to Shi Kucheng's description of the beautiful scene of the 300,000-strong army encircling Duduo, but there was no change in the expression on his face. It was not until Shi Kucheng's mouth was dry and he had nothing to say that he spoke softly.

He sighed and said: "I have just received a report from General Li of Caozhou. The Donglu army captured Yutai County on the eighth day of the fifth lunar month, entered Xuzhou territory on the ninth day of the lunar month, and defeated Pei County in succession on the tenth day of the lunar month.

There are two county towns in Feng County!”

Shi Kocheng was startled for a moment and quickly asked: "Did Yutai, Pei County, and Feng County evacuate the people? Did Gao Zongrong and Li Zongrong ever fight with the captives?"

Gao Hongtu said: "Yutai, Pei County, and Feng County are far away from the enemy territory, so they have not been evacuated. However, the population of these three counties is not large, with three to four thousand households combined, and the surrounding villages are not rich either.

...Although it suffered a disaster, the loss was not too great after all.

As for fighting, with the strength of General Li and General Gao, it’s good if they can protect themselves. Do you still dare to block the Tartars’ advance?”

"The Tartar army is not unstoppable," Shi Kecheng said. "During the battle of Qufu, didn't we stop it?"

"The strong city of Qufu can naturally block it." Li Dakai, Gao Hongtu's lieutenant, interjected, "If the Donglu dare to invade the heavily-garrisoned Pizhou City, General Gao will definitely be able to repel it."

"But the Tartars did not attack the strong city of Qufu," Shi Kocheng said with a smile. "There was just an earthen fort outside the city of Qufu, and the Tartars were helpless...even the red cannons were not successful!"

Gao Hongtu said in surprise: "What? An earthen fortress blocked the Hongyi cannon?"

"That's right!" Shi Kecheng said, "This earthen fort is built with logs as the inside, soil in the middle, and sacks of soil as the outside. No rammed earth is used, so the amount of work is not large.

After the battle in Qufu, my brother asked the regiment members to conduct experiments outside the city. He found that with 2,000 strong men, equipped with shovels, sacks, and cattail bags, it only took three or two days to build a fortress strong enough to withstand the bombardment of Hongyi artillery. If more money was spent,

In a little time, we can build a polygonal fortress like the main city of Qufu. With the help of strong bows, muskets, and squatting tiger cannons, and with 2,000 people guarding this fortress, it should be enough to withstand more than 10,000 Tartar soldiers!"

Li Dakai showed a doubtful look: "If this is true, we can use a step-by-step approach to compete with the Tartars... Hong Chengchou used this method to solve the siege of Jinzhou in the past. It's a pity that he didn't know how to build a fortress with earth bags at the time.

Otherwise, the state affairs would not be like this."

Seeing that Li Dakai still seemed a little doubtful of his statement, Shi Kecheng smiled and said to Gao Hongtu: "Gao Futai, is there a Hongyi cannon here in Jinan? If so, you can try it. Follow the example of Qufu Bing.

If you build a section of the earth wall in the village and bombard it with red cannons, you will know that what the official said is true."

Gao Hongtu shook his head and said, "There are no Hongyi cannons here in Jinan, but there are Hongyi cannons in Dengzhou City. I will send a letter to the Shandong General Army Office and ask them to use the Hongyi cannons to bombard the city wall made of soil bags. See

See if you can withstand it."

His face suddenly showed an expectant look, and he stroked his beard: "If we can really withstand it, we can divide our troops into separate groups and use the method of fortress advancement to encircle the troops of Donglu Mojin King Duduo...

Gather them together and annihilate them!"

...

"Boom boom..."

These were two three-pound regimental cannons firing, and the fist-sized solid bullets were blasted out and turned into two black spots, flying towards a row of wooden targets three hundred steps away at a high speed that was difficult to see with the naked eye.

In an instant, three or two of the wooden targets were smashed to pieces!

"Good! Good! Nikolay, very good!" Prince Zhu saw the effect of the bombardment and gave a thumbs up to the foreign military attaché with a hooked nose, black hair and beard with satisfaction.

This foreign devil's name is Nicola Ferreira, and he is the artillery regiment commander hired by Macau Governor Paulo for Zhu Cihong. At the end of last year, he led more than a hundred Portuguese gunners and craftsmen (the artillery in this era had to be self-organized).

(with craftsmen) arrived in Nanjing from Macao and joined the Model Army of the New Army to Overcome Difficulties.

Zhu Cihong also asked Feng Sizhong to select more than 200 young and agile eldest sons from the Xiaoling Guard New Army, and 300 people from each regiment of the New Army. He also selected some craftsmen from the Nanjing Artillery Manufacturing Bureau, and a team of

More than a hundred Portuguese gunners formed the Model Army Artillery Regiment.

This artillery regiment consists of six regiment artillery companies, two heavy artillery companies, one engineer company, and one heavy equipment company. Each of the six regiment artillery companies has three regiment artillery platoons, and one artillery company is equipped with a total of six three-pound guns.

Artillery - the so-called regimental artillery, of course should be attached to infantry regiments and cavalry regiments.

So now the model artillery regiment only manages these six regiment artillery companies. After all training is completed, these six regiment artillery companies will be assigned to each model infantry regiment and cavalry regiment in platoon units.

The other two heavy artillery companies are each equipped with only two platoons of 12-pound Hongyi cannons. One heavy artillery company only has four 12-pound Hongyi cannons. The two companies have a total of 8 guns, which are used to attack difficult positions.

What is being tested now is a 3-pound regimental artillery platoon composed entirely of Chinese. This platoon is personally commanded by two senior officials, Feng Sizhong and Xu Ermo, and is guided by Portuguese artillerymen selected by Ferreira who can speak a little Chinese.

After teaching for more than four months, I can finally take it out and take a look.

What can be shown to Zhu Cixiang is not only the subject of artillery, but also the two subjects of rapid transfer and positioning. Compared with the 12-pound cannon, the real advantage of the 3-pound regiment gun is that it is light and flexible.

"Your Highness, they have only completed the first phase of training. Next, they should conduct coordinated training with the infantry and cavalry regiments. The coordination is very difficult, but General Shi Ruien will definitely satisfy His Highness...

.”

Nicola Ferreira speaks blunt Chinese with a bit of a Cantonese accent - he has stayed in Macau for many years and can already speak Cantonese Mandarin, which is a bit difficult to listen to.

This Portuguese artillery regiment commander actually came from the navy. Portugal is not a land power like France, the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, or Spain, nor did it participate in the Thirty Years War. Therefore, the technology of the army is not very good, nor is it high-end.

Horizontal artillery.

Although Shi Ruien was not an artilleryman, he had actually fought in the Thirty Years War and the British Civil War, and knew how to use regiment-level artillery. He was also watching artillery drills at the university grounds, and when he heard Ferreira mention him, he knew he was

What's going on? He smiled and said to Zhu Cihong in the Shanxi accent he had just learned: "Don't worry, Your Highness, it's all taken care of by Er Laoshi!"

His "Old Western" accent was learned from one of Han Lin's nephews, Han Liren - this Han Liren had studied with the Italian missionary Gao Yizhi for many years and could speak French fluently. French is the common language in the West in this era, Shi Ruien

and Ferreira can speak it. So Han Liren became the chief general of the foreign generals, and was also responsible for teaching a group of foreign generals to speak Shanxi dialect... Therefore, the foreign generals under Zhu Cihong either spoke Cantonese Mandarin (all in Cantonese)

(Learned from Macao), either spoke Shanxi Mandarin, and there were also some generals who spoke Wu Nong soft dialect. They were all found by Grand Duke Luo from Suzhou and Songjiang for Zhu Cihong.

"General Shi," Zhu Cixiang waved to Shi Ruien, called the German who spoke Shanxi dialect to him, and then asked him in French: "If the order to go out is issued tomorrow, how many regiments of the Model Army can reach the European Army?

level?"

"Nine regiments." Shi Ruien replied firmly, "If you don't consider the artillery factor, there are nine regiments that are ready... Your Highness, is the war about to begin?"

"The war has begun!" Zhu Cixi said with a bitter smile, "But I don't know how to win yet..."

"Your Highness, what are you worried about?" Shi Ruien asked.

"My enemy has powerful light cavalry and dismounted infantry. They are actually dual-purpose soldiers. They are both light cavalry and dismounted infantry. They are proficient in fighting and archery, and can also use firecrackers and artillery." Zhu Cixiang frowned,
Chapter completed!