There is no such thing as the Kangxi and Qianlong eras

Chapter 215 is full of traitors.
Xiangyang.

Mingliang, clad in cotton armor, climbed the city wall to inspect the area. He looked to be in excellent spirits. Despite being a veteran in his sixties, he still stood tall and straight like a man in his prime.

Li Hu, who was on duty at the city wall, quickly bowed and saluted: "General!"

"Ah."

Mingliang nodded slightly and asked, "Guerrilla Commander Li, how is the situation now?"

Li Hu replied, "It's not good. News has come that Yicheng and Nanzhang have already fallen, and the Han rebel army has now set up camp along the river. I wonder what they're waiting for?"

Mingliang stretched his head to look outside the city and saw that there were indeed large camps of Han rebels on the banks of the Han River. Judging from the size of the camps, there were at least tens of thousands of troops.

Mingliang's expression turned serious. He might not care if others had tens of thousands of troops, but Xiangyang was not invincible. Even the White Lotus Sect's 200,000 rebel troops could not take it down.

But outside are Han traitors, whose elite troops are even comparable to the elite troops of the Solon. With tens of thousands of such elite troops coming to attack the city, he really doesn't know if Xiangyang can withstand it.

The walls of Xiangyang were indeed sturdy, but the hearts of the people were not!
Mingliang pondered for a while, then pretended to be nonchalant and said, "The Han traitors are probably waiting for cannons. To attack a city, they need cannons. In addition, the Han traitors are powerful because of their firearms. Without cannons, the Han traitors are just toothless tigers."

"But the Han traitors don't know that Xiangyang's city walls are thick. Even if the Han traitors bring cannons, it won't be so easy to take it down. Li Youji, in the next few days, you should collect as many supplies as possible for defending the city, such as rolling stones, oil, and logs, and prepare for a long-term defense."

"The Han traitors are foolish enough to refuse our offer of amnesty. Now our Great Qing has nothing to fear. Since the Han traitors are heading north to attack Xiangyang this time, I will petition the court to request that the elite troops from Guangdong, Guangxi, Jiangxi, Yunnan and Guizhou attack the Han traitors' Hunan, so that the Han traitors will be too busy to defend themselves!"

Li Hu quickly flattered, "General, your insight is brilliant!"

Mingliang nodded, gave a few more instructions, then had his deputy general and Li Hu stay on the city wall to oversee the situation before leading his personal guards down the wall.

He then returned to the governor's office.

"Cough...cough...cough..."

Mingliang covered his mouth with his hand and coughed violently. He coughed for a while before he felt a little better. When he opened his hand, he saw that it was covered with bright red blood.

Mingliang coughed and wiped the blood off his hands with a cloth, then called out to the outside, "Cough cough... Someone come here! Bring me some cough medicine."

After waiting for several more days, Bai Nan finally received the cannon.

There were a total of ten siege cannons, all of which were giant cannons weighing 4 tons each, with barrels thicker than a human head.

The giant cannon was so heavy that it was disassembled and hoisted down from the ship by laborers and Han soldiers working together using pulleys, and then assembled into a cannon carriage on the spot.

By the time the ten siege cannons were assembled, it was nearly noon.

The Han army pushed ten giant cannon carts and slowly approached the city of Xiangyang.

On the city wall, Li Hu was "dutifully performing his duties" when he suddenly noticed movement in the Han army camp outside the city. Just as he was wondering what had happened, he saw ten enormous, terrifying red cannons.

"What a huge cannon!"

These are the exclamations of the Qing soldiers on duty.

Even those with poor eyesight would be terrified to see a cannon several times the size of a person, with a frighteningly long barrel.

Li Hu was dumbfounded and couldn't help but ask, "Deputy General Qian, where did this Han traitor get such a big cannon?"

The deputy general Qian, who had been specially left to monitor Li Hu, was also horrified by what he saw: "I...I don't know either. Aren't these Han traitors afraid of their cannons exploding with such large barrels?"

What's there to be afraid of? It'll explode!
These are all unnecessary questions.

If they were really afraid of the cannons exploding, they wouldn't have brought out so many cannons. And even if half of the ten cannons exploded, the other half would still be enough to overwhelm the walls of Xiangyang.

Wait... artillery bombardment?
not good!

Li Hu realized what was happening and quickly called to Deputy General Qian to lead his personal guards down the city wall to take cover. If they were hit by stray bullets, they would probably be physically eliminated on the spot.

As soon as the two of them ran down the city wall, the Han army prepared to order the cannons to fire.

Bai Nan put down his binoculars, raised his hand, and shouted, "Fire! Bombard the city! Bombard it for a day first!"

Bai Nan brought ten siege cannons and forty red-coated cannons, a total of fifty heavy cannons. This firepower was formidable, and it was clear that he attached great importance to Xiangyang.

It can be said that even without inside help, relying solely on the firepower of heavy artillery, it was only a matter of time before the Han army captured Xiangyang.

The military order was quickly relayed to the artillery battalion via walkie-talkie, and all fifty heavy cannons opened fire simultaneously.

Such a spectacular scene is truly rare!

"Boom boom boom!"

First, the ten siege cannons fired, followed by the forty red-coated cannons. To ensure safety and accuracy, each cannon fired in rotation, instead of a salvo. The angle data was recorded after each shot so that the cannon positions could be readjusted.

Because the cannons were fired in rotation, almost all the shells were fired, with only four shells hitting the target on the city wall.

Three shots were cannonballs from a giant cannon, and one was a cannonball.

The cannonball landed way off target, so its destructive power was minimal, but its deterrent effect was considerable. A cannonball from a giant cannon struck the parapet, creating a large crater. Fortunately, no Qing soldiers were standing behind it, but the impact still terrified the Qing troops along that section of the wall, causing them to scatter and flee.

No one tried to suppress them, and it was impossible to suppress them anyway. If they weren't all locals of Xiangyang, they probably would have abandoned the city and fled long ago.

The siege cannons had a lot of recoil. Every time they fired, it took more than ten laborers to push the cannon back to its original position and readjust the direction of the cannon.

"boom!"

Another shot was fired, but it missed.

"boom!"

But then the next giant cannon fired a shell that hit the target on the city wall again. Although it only hit the surface of the wall, it still sent stone dust and debris flying everywhere.

The Xiangyang city wall still seems to stand firm. This ancient city is too sturdy. Not only can it form a defensive triangle with Fancheng, but the narrowest part of the city wall is 5 meters wide, and the foundation is 15 meters high.

The moat of Xiangyang is also frighteningly wide, with the widest part reaching 200 meters. It is surrounded by city walls on the east, west, south, and north sides, with a total length of about 8 kilometers.

This ancient city was practically impossible for humans to conquer. No wonder it withstood the Mongol onslaught for thirty years back then; it was truly remarkable!

The Han army fired artillery in rotation outside the city; whether or not it could breach the city walls was not important. The key was to intimidate the Qing soldiers on the city walls and break their will to resist. At the same time, under the cover of artillery fire, laborers carried mud, sand, and stones to fill the moat.

The bombardment lasted for a day, and the Qing soldiers defending the city also took cover for the entire day.

By evening, the shelling had just ceased.

Under the cover of night, Deputy General Qian and Li Hu dared to patrol the city wall. They found their Qing soldiers all looking dejected, many sections of the parapet were damaged, and there were even cannonballs stuck in craters that no one had dug out.

The shells were bigger than their heads; they were terrifying to look at.

Li Hu's face was rather grim: "This is only the first day! The morale of the troops has already wavered like this. How can we fight on?"

Although he had been turned into an inside agent, he had been given important responsibilities by Mingliang for nearly half a year. Even though he had no intention of doing so before, the six months of power he had held still made him reluctant to give it up.

His original idea was to help defend the city first, and then negotiate with the Han army to see if he could keep his guerrilla officer position or even advance further.

But now, on the very first day, the fighting is so fierce. It's questionable whether we can even hold on. How can we possibly negotiate?

Lieutenant General Qian, unaware of Li Hu's thoughts, also looked grim: "The Han traitors' cannons are too powerful. We can't let them continue firing like this. Our cannons must also fire."

Li Hu frowned and asked, "How can we fight? Our cannons are probably not even half the size of theirs. We can't win."

Deputy General Qian also thought of this, and after a moment's thought, asked, "Could we take advantage of the night to leave the city and blow up the Han traitor's cannons?"

Li Hu was speechless: "If we can blow it up, then what's the point of us defending the city? Wouldn't it be better to just attack and wipe out the Han traitors?"

These words were very disrespectful, and Vice General Qian wanted to get angry, but he didn't dare to.

Li Hu had been in Xiangyang longer than him, and he was surrounded by Xiangyang soldiers. If he dared to make a move, it would easily provoke a mutiny in the army.

Nothing worked, nothing worked, and the two of them ran out of ideas, so they parted on bad terms.

Deputy General Qian went to the governor's office to report Li Hu's misdeeds. Li Hu was equally resolute and immediately went to the governor's office to find Prefect Yao, Magistrate Fang, and Clerk Ma.

"Li Youji, what brings you here at this crucial moment?" Master Ma asked.

Li Hu succinctly stated: "We can't hold on anymore. The Han army has brought out a particularly powerful cannon, and our army's morale has collapsed. We can't hold them off."

Without much hesitation, Yao Tongzhi made the decision: "Let's go find Boss Chen immediately. If we don't act quickly to stop this defection, our lives may be in danger."

Before defending the city, Yao Tongzhi's mindset had also changed a bit due to time constraints. He wanted to take the opportunity to bargain, but now there was no point in bargaining. He had to save his life first!
The group found Chen Xingye overnight.

"Please, Mr. Chen... no, Lord Chen, save us!"

"Hehe, no problem, no problem. As long as you all sincerely submit to my Great Han, I, Chen, will do my utmost!"

As soon as the words were spoken, everyone gasped. It turned out that the other party had already guessed their thoughts and was deliberately waiting for them to become restless.

There was nothing I could do; knowing the truth was one thing, but at this point, all I could do was grit my teeth and beg for my life.

“Lord Chen, we are naturally sincere in our submission to the Han Dynasty. I happen to have some silver in savings at a bank in the city, and I am willing to offer it all to you.”

"My lord, I also have some silver stored here..."

"This humble servant owns three vacant houses and a daughter who is of marriageable age..."

"Ahem, alright, alright, everyone calm down. Let's talk about the important matter of defecting and surrendering the city first!"

"Yes, yes, what you say is right, it's more important to defect and surrender the city."

(End of this chapter)