Yongli Ming Dynasty

Chapter 143 Siege
In the early morning, outside the East Moat, flags were flying, and countless soldiers were standing on the river bank hundreds of meters away. The sound of people and horses was everywhere.
A passage more than 20 meters wide had been filled in the Donghao River, and floating bridges had been built in several nearby places. A dozen armored cavalrymen rode across the Donghao and galloped towards the city.
The cavalry stopped about ten meters in front of the city wall, and then shouted loudly towards the wall.

"The Ming Emperor in the city heard this."

"The imperial soldiers of the Qing Dynasty have arrived. If you know your destiny, you should quickly leave the city and surrender. This way you will still be safe and sound. Otherwise, when the imperial soldiers of the Qing Dynasty enter the city, you will be severely punished."

"With tens of thousands of soldiers from the Qing Dynasty, it will be easy to take down this small city. The people in the city must not be complacent. Anyone who opens the gate and surrenders will be rewarded with 10,000 gold coins and appointed as the governor of Guangzhou. If you insist on resisting, after the army enters the city, all those who have joined the rebellion..."

The Qing cavalry had just shouted halfway when an iron arrow suddenly shot down from the city wall and pierced directly into the forehead of a soldier.

The soldier fell off his horse, and then another rain of arrows fell.

A dozen cavalrymen were riddled with arrows. Without saying a word, they lay down on their horses and rushed to the rear.
Dozens of arrows rained down, and except for the first person who was sniped and killed, one person was shot down. The remaining dozen riders all escaped safely back to Donghao.
Jiao Lian put down the longbow in his hand and looked at the dense crowd of people outside Donghao with a solemn expression on his face.
The dozen riders rushed back to the battle formation, and the army formation near the river began to move. Not long after, hundreds of young and strong men with panicked expressions were driven to the front of the battle formation.
Hundreds of young men carried dozens of ladders and crossed the river from the filled-in river channel, running towards the east city wall. When Jiao Lian saw the ladders crossing the river, he immediately shouted to the hunter archers who were waiting on the side.
"shoot"

Hundreds of arrows rained down from the top of the city. Fifty or sixty meters away, dozens of young men who were carrying ladders to cross the river suddenly fell down, and the remaining young men cried out in fear, threw down the ladders, and fled to the rear.
Just as these hundreds of young men turned around and fled across the river bank, fifty or sixty cavalrymen rushed out from the distant army formation.

The cavalrymen raised their sabers, and dozens of young men who were fleeing in the front were immediately chopped to the ground. The young men who were originally running paused for a moment, and then fled in all directions with increasing panic.
"Those who retreat will die, return quickly to deliver the flying ladder"

"Send a flying ladder. There is no need to attack the city today. Anyone who dares to escape will be killed."

The Qing cavalrymen's braids fluttered behind their heads, and they kept shouting

The cavalrymen surrounded them from all sides and chopped down dozens of them in a blink of an eye. The river bank was filled with an alarming smell of blood. Until this moment, the young men by the river finally stopped running and huddled together. The front of the battle was filled with cries.
The dozens of cavalrymen stopped killing when they saw the young and strong men gathered together. Soon, hundreds of civilians were driven to the front.

The cavalrymen kept driving them from behind, and the crowd cried and wailed. But they had no choice but to walk back to the river bank, stepping on the bloody corpses on the ground, and then they lifted the ladder and continued to run towards the East City crying and wailing.

"Master, please spare us. We are all civilians outside the city, driven by people outside the city. Master on the city wall, please spare us and don't shoot arrows at us."

The people who had crossed the river cried and shouted, while carrying ladders and rushing over.
"shoot"

On the top of the city wall, the archer flag officer saw the people crossing the river again, his face looked indifferent, and he suddenly spoke

The cries of the people below the city echoed through the city walls, and the hunters and archers gathered by the city walls looked terrified.
At this time, some people were at a loss when they heard the order. Only a few leading soldiers of the imperial guards immediately shot arrows.

The archer flag officer beside him saw that the hunters did not move for a long time, and his face was furious. He smashed a hunter's head with the back of his knife. The hunter fell to the ground with blood all over his face.

"If you don't obey orders, you will die"

The flag officer roared, and the civilian archers saw the man on the ground with blood on his face, and finally raised their bows and shot arrows.
"Shoot again"

The flag officer roared, and this time no one hesitated. Nearly a hundred arrows were shot down from the top of the city, and the people outside the city fell down again.

There were thirty or forty meters between the East Moat and the city wall. The people who were carrying the ladders cried and screamed, and they threw the ladders down as soon as they crossed the river. They did not dare to flee to the rear, so they had to flee to both sides of the river.
Hundreds of civilians fled on one side of the Donghao city wall, but the cavalry behind them did not cross the river to drive them away. Instead, they stood a hundred meters away from the river bank, out of the range of bows and arrows.

Soon, hundreds of civilians were driven out from the rear army, carrying a batch of ladders and heading towards the Donghao city wall.
On all four sides of Guangzhou City Wall, the Qing army kept forcing the people to carry ladders to cross the river, while the Ming army on the top of the city kept shooting arrows to disperse the people.
In less than half an hour, hundreds of civilians died under the city wall, but the Qing army in the rear continued to drive the civilians to carry ladders across the river.
"People living under the city walls will cross the river and leave. Anyone who approaches the city walls will be killed without mercy."

The Ming army on the top of the city kept shouting, and a hail of arrows was fired at the floating bridge on the river bank. The people who were driven across the river were often shot by arrows, and dozens of bodies fell down, and they fled directly to both sides of the river bank.
"General, we have used up two thousand arrows. Should we keep shooting?"

"Reduce the number of shooters in each round by half, fire another thousand arrows, and then stop shooting." Jiao Lian looked at the people pouring in from the other side of the river and spoke in a cold voice. The archer flag officer took the order and hurriedly retreated.

There was silence on the city wall at this time. Xu Wu and other young and strong men guarding the city looked at the dead people under the city wall with pale faces.
Everyone held their spears tightly, but their bodies could not help but tremble slightly.
On the broad city wall, a soldier in leather armor ran past and ran directly towards Jiao Lian under the general's banner.
"General, Lieutenant General Bai Gui reported that regular Qing soldiers appeared in the north of the city and have begun to attack the city. The enemy is attacking the city very quickly. Lieutenant General Bai requests 300 reinforcements and 2,000 arrows. Please use artillery to defend the city," the messenger said.

"Give him a thousand arrows and tell him that there are no people left. He must not use the artillery until the artillery fires from the east of the city," Jiao Lian said coldly.
The messenger ordered the soldiers to take orders, and then hurried to the north of the city.
On the other side of the East City, Li Chengdong, Du Yonghe and other generals stood under the general's flag, looking at the Guangzhou city wall in the distance.

"General, the rain of arrows from the top of the city wall has begun to decrease. Just now, three rounds of civilians passed by, and only dozens of arrows were shot down from the top of the city wall."

"Report from all sides of the city, except for the north of the city, the Ming army has stopped shooting arrows."

Du Yonghe heard this and said softly

"The Ming army in the city must be short of arrows. When General Luo started the attack, the Ming army probably moved all their arrows to the north of the city."

Li Chengdong thought for a moment and then said

"Send two more groups of civilians over there. If the rain of arrows from the top of the city walls does not increase, we will start the siege."

The messenger retreated in a hurry, and soon another wave of civilians, almost twice as many as the previous one, was driven across the river again, while only dozens of arrows were shot down from the city wall.

Although the number of civilians this time was twice as many as before, they were no different from before. Dozens of arrows rained down, shooting down more than a dozen people, and the rest also fled in a hurry.
Two more groups of civilians crossed the river on the other side of Donghao. Finally, no more civilians appeared. The Ming army on the city wall kept firing rockets, trying to burn the ladders that the civilians carried across the river.
But between the river bank and the city wall, the people were fleeing everywhere, and the ladders for crossing the river were thrown everywhere. Although rockets were fired, only a few of the wooden ladders actually caught fire.

At this time, the bodies of dead civilians were everywhere between Guangzhou City and the Qing army on the other side of the river. The Qing army on the other side of Donghao was quiet for a while, and then nearly a thousand Qing soldiers suddenly lined up and slowly pressed towards the city wall.
In the Qing army formation, the soldiers in the front row were wearing leather armor and holding door shields and moving forward slowly, while the soldiers in the back were holding bamboo baskets that they had snatched from somewhere and following the soldiers in front.

The Qing army marched to the Donghao River, about 80 meters away from the city wall, when suddenly a dense barrage of arrows was fired from the city wall again.
Hundreds of arrows hit the door panels, making a clanging sound, but they were all blocked by the shields in the front row, and no one in the entire army was injured or fell.
The army stopped at the river for a moment. After seeing that there were no more arrows being shot down from the city walls after this wave of arrow rain, the army behind them finally sounded the drums of advancing.

The troops on the riverside finally stopped hesitating and marched towards the passage filled in by the East Moat with their shields raised.
On the city wall, Jiao Lian looked at the army array with wooden shields on the opposite bank of the river, and his expression finally relaxed.
He stared at the army formation on the other side, slowly advancing. When he saw that the other side had already stepped onto the filled passage of Donghao, he shouted loudly.
"Aim at the channel and fire volleys"

The flag of the soldier beside Jiao Lian suddenly waved downwards, and ten cannons that had been aimed at various passages on the river bank suddenly roared out.
Rumble

Ten yellow flames burst out from the top of the city wall, and ten one-pound iron bullets flew out from the muzzles.
Boom Ka
More than a thousand Qing soldiers were crowding in the riverside passage to cross the river. The iron bullet smashed through the door panel in the front row with a bang, and then crashed into the army formation.
The kinetic energy of the 300-jin artillery within 60 meters was extremely amazing. The soldiers behind the shields were directly smashed to pieces, half of their bodies were pierced, and a cloud of blood mist rose up.

The iron bullets continued to hit the rear without slowing down. The originally square-like formation was instantly cleared of a bloody passage by the iron bullets.
However, before the soldiers in the passage could react, there was another roar from the city wall, and then seven or eight iron bullets hit the army formation, and the front of the entire army formation suddenly dented, and the river bank was full of flying flesh and blood.

The more than 20-meter-wide passage was filled with screams and wails. The Qing troops crossing the river were completely stunned by the sudden artillery fire. Everyone screamed and fled to the rear. Soldiers kept falling into the water, being dragged to the bottom of the river by their armor and drowned.

The Ming army artillery fired three rounds in total, six of which were aimed at the passage on the river bank, and the remaining four were aimed at the two floating bridges on the river bank.

There were as many as 1,700 to 1,800 Qing troops crossing the river. They gathered in the narrow passage. This round of artillery bombardment alone killed and injured 300 to 400 Qing troops on the opposite side.

“Why are there artillery in the city?”

On the other side of Donghao, Li Chengdong stood up suddenly when the cannon sounded, looking at the Guangzhou city wall in the distance, and his expression changed drastically.
(End of this chapter)