There is no such thing as the Kangxi and Qianlong eras

Chapter 107 Changsha
As soon as the Han army's huge artillery fired a round, civilians immediately pushed the artillery cart back to its position, and artillerymen skillfully cleaned the gun barrel and reloaded the shells and propellant.

Then, the rangefinder gunner stepped forward and raised his thumb, carefully compared and adjusted the angle of the gun barrel, and drew a record.

The scientific name of this distance measurement method is triangulation parallax. It is not some advanced arithmetic technique. It was introduced to China as early as the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty and was used by Guo Shoujing to create the "Shourishi Calendar".

It is also very easy to learn, and you don’t even need any special skills. Just give your thumbs up and blink. Experienced veterans can even skip the verification process and know where the shell will fall just by looking at it.

The Han army's artillerymen were not that powerful and still needed to use tools to draw landing point maps.

"Boom boom boom!"

Twenty-nine cannons fired at the Changsha city walls again.

This time the accuracy was obviously much better. Nearly one-third of the shells hit the target, and two siege cannons directly hit the main city gate tower.

Fortunately, there was no one on the city wall at this moment. Chen Sanchen, who used to like to stay inside and observe the movements of the Han army, ran down the city wall with Zheng Yuanyun before the Han army fired the cannon.

As mentioned earlier, the Han army's siege cannon was actually an enhanced version of the British "68-pound" cannon. The "68-pound" shell was a solid shell weighing about 60 kilograms.

The Han army was still worried that the power was not enough, so they added sugar and rust fragments to the propellant. Fortunately, this was an alloy seamless steel pipe made with modern technology, and it was a large-caliber customized version, otherwise it would not be able to withstand the power of the chamber pressure.

Two 60-jin solid artillery shells hit the main gate tower of Changsha.

In an instant, the huge bluestone bricks on the outer wall exploded under the impact, revealing the thick rammed earth wall inside, which absorbed most of the kinetic energy of the artillery shell.

The entire city gate tower made a loud rumbling sound, and all the soldiers guarding the city wall felt as if they felt an earthquake, and their feet shook.

Changsha city wall is indeed thick and resistant to weeds!

The Han army's artillery bombarded the city from day to night. The outer wall of the main city was no longer recognizable. There were holes and cracks in the stone bricks everywhere caused by the huge artillery, but there was no sign of collapse.

Chen Sanchen also tried to order a counterattack, but there was no way. Changsha, as the capital of Hunan Province, did have city defense cannons, but most of them were deployed in the western section of the city wall to defend the Xiangjiang River.

The artillery batteries installed on the northern section of the main city wall were not only few in number but also extremely weak in power. Their firing rate and range were inferior to those of the Han army's cannons.

The most abstract thing is that the Qing army gunners received orders and tried to fire back.

As a result, one-third of the cannons did not fire, and the remaining half did fire, but one of the cannons suddenly exploded in the second round.

More than a dozen Qing artillerymen were killed or injured on the spot, and the other artillerymen dared not move.

This is the real situation of the Qing Dynasty. They value firearms, but also do not value firearms.

Because the Qing army only valued muskets and despised artillery. For the Qing army, artillery was heavy and inconvenient, and also increased financial expenditure. Using muskets to fight was completely sufficient.

Including the several suppressions of rebellions of the Miao local chiefs in the south during the Kangxi and Qianlong periods, and the large-scale Jinchuan battles during the Qianlong period, artillery was useless and the power of bird guns was greatly reduced. Instead, the cold weapon army with swords and spears adapted to the southwestern battlefield and defeated the Miao local chief rebel army.

Artillery was not very effective on the southern battlefield, there were no foreign enemies in the north, and overseas, China pursued a closed-door policy with no external pressure at all.

Why bother developing artillery? The old antiques are enough!

Chen Sanchen waited until the Han soldiers ceased firing before he dared to climb the city wall and look out. After looking for a long time, he sighed softly and walked down the wall, just in time to run into Zheng Yuanyun.

Zheng Yuanyun was squatting on the ground, facing the lantern in his follower's hand, and no one knew what he was looking at.

Chen Sanchen walked over and saw that it was a pile of ruins of smashed houses. The Han army's artillery failed to destroy the city wall for the time being, but the flying shells destroyed many unfortunate houses.

"..."

The two looked at each other speechlessly.

Chen Sanchen's mentality was okay. Although he was a little worried, at least he could keep his composure. Zheng Yuanyun, on the other hand, was almost losing confidence in his heart.

Aren’t the rebel Han army in Yuezhou a group of White Lotus cultists who only know how to incite the people?

How did they manage to build such a huge cannon?
The shells were larger than a human head. Even Zheng Yuanyun, a second-rank official, had never seen such a thing before.

"Prefect Chen, do you think the city of Changsha can still be defended?" Zheng Yuanyun suddenly asked.

Zheng Yuankun did not call him by his courtesy name, but subconsciously called him by his official title.

Chen Sanchen was shocked and said quickly: "Sir, please be at ease. Changsha is not comparable to Yuezhou, Lizhou, and other ordinary provincial capitals. To put it bluntly, even Changde where the General of Jingzhou is located and Chenzhou where Sir Futai is located are not as safe as Changsha where we are. Although the rebels' artillery is sharp, as long as our army holds its ground, we may not be without the ability to fight." "Maybe not," the implication is that under normal circumstances, they should not be able to win.

Zheng Yuanyun's face turned grim: "Is there any way to deal with the rebels' cannons?"

Chen Sanchen said: "Either we go out of the city and repel the rebel army first, then seize the artillery, or we directly burn and blow up the rebel artillery, but..."

"But we can't get out!" Zheng Yuanyun shook his head and sighed.

The Qing army was short of manpower and had poor combat effectiveness. Leaving the city now was no different from sending their heads to the battlefield. If they really wanted to defeat the Han army, why would they need to deal with artillery?
Chen Sanchen was silent for a moment, then said, "Changsha City is strong and has thick walls. The best way now is to rely on the walls to defend. No matter how powerful the rebels' artillery is, it will be difficult to knock down the walls in a short time. Even if the walls are knocked down, we can block the gaps and continue fighting the rebels in the streets. As long as we can wait for the reinforcements from Changde and Chenzhou to come to our rescue, the rebels outside the city will not be a problem. We can cooperate with the reinforcements to attack the rebels from both inside and outside and defeat them!"

Well, that's nicely said, but it's all bullshit.

As for the current mixed strength of Changsha's troops, there are green camps composed of the old, weak, sick and disabled, civilian militia with little combat power, provincial capital yamen runners who are just there to make up the numbers, and servants and guards supported by the provincial capital's big families who have their own ulterior motives.

If the city wall was really blown down, these defenders, who were even more ragtag than the others, would not be able to block the gap, and it would be considered a great honor for the governor and the prefect if they did not defect immediately.

Chen Sanchen was at his wit's end. He could indeed fight and knew how to fight, but no matter how skilled he was in commanding troops, he couldn't cook without rice!

What are the current Changsha defenders like?

Their combat effectiveness is probably not as good as the militia he trained when he was in office in Bozhou.

In addition, the situation today is different from the past. The Han army outside the city can be regarded as real rebels in terms of combat power and weapons and armaments. They can even be said to be small princes in troubled times. They are not comparable to ordinary mobs and soldiers.

Now that Chen Sanchen is given an elite group of officers and soldiers, he has to consider whether he can win the battle.

Soon the next day, the Han army pulled out artillery again to attack the city, still hitting the northern section of the main city wall.

Twenty-nine cannons fired in turns.

The gunner's movements were more skillful than the day before, and the firing rate became faster. Under the roar of artillery fire, the defenders on the city wall could not even stand up.

Under the cover of heavy artillery fire, the civilians rushed to the city wall and began to fill the moat.

Almost a quarter of Changsha’s moat has been filled in.

The Han soldiers bombarded the city with artillery for three days. Chen Sanchen could not bear it any longer and led 300 strong soldiers with gunpowder bags to launch a surprise attack under the cover of night, intending to blow up the Han soldiers' artillery.

Chen Sanchen had just led his troops out of the city secretly, and before they could even reach the Han army's position, the Han army camp lit torches and blew bugles.

"Ta-ta-ta-ta!"

Hundreds of torches rushed towards Chen Sanchen and his group.

Chen Sanchen was horrified. He had been very careful and had not even lit the torches. All the soldiers had gags in their mouths for fear of making any sound.

How did the Han soldiers discover it?
There was no time to think, the Han soldiers were coming to attack.

There was no need to convey military orders because it was too dark. It would be useless to convey military orders. They just followed the torches and engaged in hand-to-hand combat.

Chen Sanchen's night attack army was killed and scattered in an instant, and even he himself was stabbed. Fortunately, because it was too dark, the Qing soldiers could not see clearly, and the Han soldiers could not see clearly either, so the knife did not penetrate deep into the flesh.

Chen Sanchen managed to escape back into the city in a panic, and the Han soldiers outside did not dare to chase him too deep.

Because it was really dark, the only people who could see the Qing soldiers were the Han soldiers on lookout. Through the night vision function of the telescope, they saw hundreds of sneaky Qing soldiers.

Chen Sanchen was defeated and fled back, but he fainted due to excessive blood loss as soon as he entered the city.

Although Zheng Yuanyun was horrified, he still forced himself to send the man for treatment.

The night attack outside the city was defeated, and the only person who could fight was seriously injured. The morale in Changsha was even lower.

The morale of the army was in turmoil, and officials, gentry, and soldiers all had their own thoughts. No one thought that Changsha could be defended, and it was even unlikely to be held for long!

Zheng Yuanyun had no choice but to pretend he didn't know and hope that Chen Sanchen was okay.

(End of this chapter)