Total War: I'm building up an army to rebel against the Qing Dynasty in a heavily modified vers

Chapter 108 A Fierce Attack on Kaiyuan City!

What?! Are you kidding me?! My hometown got robbed!

When the other Qing soldiers heard this news, their morale instantly plummeted. Although it seemed that they could take Kaiyuan City at any moment, they had almost no intention of staying here to continue the siege.

You have to understand, their families are still in Shengjing City. Who knows what those rebels will do after they storm Shengjing City?

Fortunately, at that moment, General Yu Ming, who was leading them in battle, was personally leading his personal guards on patrol. So when he heard the commotion, before the news could spread further in the military camp, he immediately ordered his personal guards to control all the soldiers who had heard the news.

"Damn it! Tell me in detail, what exactly happened?"

After taking a deep breath, Yu Ming glared angrily at the cavalrymen who had escaped from Shengjing City. For a moment, he felt so angry that his brain was about to explode, and everything seemed to go black.

If he had known that those rebels had spies in the city, he would never have led his troops out to fight.

Losing Kaiyuan City now isn't a big problem, but losing Shengjing City would be a much bigger issue!

The former would only result in a reprimand from the imperial court, but the latter could cost him his official position, and might even cost him his head.

I can't stay!

After asking around carefully, although Yu Ming still had a lot of questions and couldn't understand, he had roughly figured out what had happened.

"What a disgrace! What a disgrace! How did those soldiers guarding the gate even manage to bring in so many muskets, and even heavy infantry armor?"

Yu Ming was furious. At least several hundred muskets and hundreds of sets of heavy armor had been brazenly transported into Shengjing City, and a rebel force of at least a thousand men had even managed to sneak in.

With such a large influx of people from outside the area, and a whole host of extremely sensitive government-controlled equipment, the guards at the gate managed to keep it completely hidden!

Good heavens, with such a group of people fully armed, launching a surprise attack, it's no wonder they lost the outer city in no time. Anyone would be dumbfounded in that situation.

The Qing cavalrymen were trembling with fear, their heads bowed and them remaining silent.

They couldn't think too much about who would be in charge of the city gates now; they were certain that the generals responsible for guarding the gates would lose their heads in the future.

Anyway, when they check the city gates on weekdays, there must be some problems, otherwise where would those guards get their kickbacks?

But if they're bringing in so many strangers and weapons that clearly indicate a rebellion, how can that be explained?

This doesn't sound very realistic.

Even if people die for money and birds die for food, it shouldn't go to this extent, right?

After figuring out the situation, Yu Ming ordered all soldiers to keep the news to themselves and not to spread rumors.

If he finds out, all those who know about it will be executed without mercy!

To prevent leaks, he specially designated a separate camp area in a corner of the military camp, where all the Qing soldiers who heard the news were isolated.

His personal guards were all stationed outside, not allowing anyone to leave at will, but anyone who dared to go out would be killed without mercy!

After he had the information under control, a lieutenant beside General Yu Ming bowed and said, "Sir, what should we do next? This news probably can't be kept secret for long!"

"Even if we manage to control these people, who can guarantee that others haven't heard the news? I reckon it won't be long before a bunch of soldiers in our camp start spreading rumors!"

Yu Ming lowered his head in deep thought, repeatedly tapping the desk in front of him, trying to find a relatively reliable solution.

But after much thought, he couldn't come up with a safe strategy. Seeing the general still deep in thought, the adjutant continued, "Sir, should we retreat immediately or continue the attack on Kaiyuan? What are your plans?"

Yu Ming still didn't answer, because that was the very question he was pondering.

From an emotional standpoint, he would still prefer to immediately turn back and support Shengjing City, but realistically, he feels that doing so would be very unreliable.

Because he had to pass through Fushun on his way back to support Shengjing, and according to the information he had received, it seemed that Fushun was also under the control of the rebels.

It would normally take them at least seven days to march back, and their marching speed would be even slower due to road conditions. If they attacked Fushun first, and then attacked Shengjing after taking Fushun, it was unknown how long that would take.

Time was of the essence, as the amount of food he brought was not much.

In his mind, he should have been able to easily lead this large army to conquer the enemy, and he could also plunder the surrounding villages along the way, so he did not carry too much food.

If he were to return to support Shengjing immediately, everything would go smoothly, but if the battle did not go well, he would very likely run out of supplies after only two days of fighting in Shengjing.

In particular, Fushun is a very small city and not a major grain-producing area. Most of the granaries are not located there, so there is not much grain stored in the city. Even if he were to take it and carry out a massacre, he would not be able to obtain much food.

In comparison, if he had concentrated his main forces to attack Kaiyuan immediately and captured the city as quickly as possible, he could have seized a large amount of grain stored in Kaiyuan.

With this grain, he could slowly return to support Shengjing.

"Let's take Kaiyuan City as quickly as possible. Those rebels shouldn't be able to take Shengjing so easily. The inner city's defenses are quite strong, and there are cannons on the city walls."

"We don't have much food. If anything goes wrong, we could run out of food completely. The safest strategy is to take Kaiyuan City first."

After deciding on the strategy, Yu Ming stopped allowing the soldiers to rest.

Even if they haven't fully prepared their siege weapons yet, this battle must be fought, and it must be won quickly!

He never thought he couldn't take Kaiyuan City, nor did he think that the rebels could quickly conquer the inner city of Shengjing after occupying the outer city. That's why he made this decision.

The inner city of Shengjing was entirely populated by soldiers of the Eight Banners. In Yuming's view, these soldiers should be the most loyal and trustworthy people to the Qing Dynasty, as were all the noble families of the Banners.

These wealthy and powerful families usually stored up a lot of grain, and there were also granaries in the inner city. With the grain prepared, they sent all their servants to the city walls to defend against the enemy, and also brought out their privately hidden weapons. This was enough to put together a considerable armed force.

The rebels had to suppress the outer city and were busy looting, and they didn't have enough siege weapons, so it was unlikely that they could take over the inner city so quickly.

When the rebels and the inner city troops are exhausted, we will take Kaiyuan, cut off their retreat, and return with ample supplies. It will be like a divine army descending from the sky, and we will surely defeat the rebel army!

Of course, another reason why General Yuming was not so worried about the safety of Shengjing was that the families of the Eight Banners soldiers were all in the inner city. So even if the rebels committed rampant rape and looting, the only ones who would suffer were the families of the Green Standard Army soldiers in the outer city.

The Green Standard Army soldiers are nothing but a bunch of lackeys. They have no human rights. Since the master's family is still safe, then there's no need to worry about the lackeys' families!

The Qing soldiers were momentarily stunned to receive the attack order from General Yuming. However, General Yuming immediately issued a series of commands: "My brave warriors of the Great Qing, I think you all know that there are gold mines all around Kaiyuan. So, with so many gold mines, how could Kaiyuan City be lacking in gold?"

"As long as you fight bravely, we will not take a single penny after the city falls. All the gold will be yours. We will plunder for three days after the city falls, and we will not sheath our swords within those three days!"

Upon hearing this, the group of Qing soldiers, though unsure why their general was being so generous, all had their eyes turn red with envy.

They didn't know how many gold mines there were in Kaiyuan, but they did know that it was a gold-producing area.

In addition, many people spread rumors among themselves, to the point that they all believed that the city occupied by the rebels must be full of gold, and that after making a fortune, each of them could become a rich man!

A generous reward will surely attract brave men, especially since these Qing soldiers, whether from the Green Standard Army or the Eight Banners, were almost all impoverished, to the point that they had all gone mad at this moment.

Amidst the thunderous sound of war drums, squads of Eight Banner soldiers bravely took the lead, carrying ladders and wielding shields as they charged towards the city walls.

Besides them, other Green Standard Army soldiers quickly set up their cannons and aimed, taking advantage of the moment before these people rushed forward to fire a couple of shots. Regardless of whether the shells hit the enemy, it was at least a way to boost morale.

At the same time, General Yuming urged the group of lamas to hurry up.

"Alright, quickly bring out all the pills you've refined these past few days, and also get out all the demonic beasts you've been busy modifying. Get them ready for the siege!"

"Once the city falls, we will reward you handsomely. We guarantee you'll get both silver and plenty of corpses!"

The lamas nodded hurriedly and handed the entire bottle of pills to Yuming, which looked like a bottle full of small meatballs.

Immediately afterwards, they rang a bell, and a short while later, several monsters resembling wild boars sprang out from the distant woods.

The reason this thing is described as a wild boar-like monster is because it is just too big!

At a glance, each wild boar was at least five meters long and its shoulder height far exceeded that of any warhorse.

These wild boars had extremely exaggerated tusks, and two extra limbs had grown from their abdomens. Although their skin appeared to be highly rotten, it had developed a layer of foul-smelling pustules, forming a hard scab that seemed to offer decent protection.

What's most frightening is that these wild boars actually have an extra head on top of their heads.

It's unclear how the lama modified it, but he somehow managed to insert the heads of Qing soldiers with long braids, spines and all, into the wild boar's head, making them look like soul-suppressing nails.

The reason the lamas were able to easily command the wild boars with the corpse-driving bell was because of these human heads; they controlled the boars' minds through this device.

Upon seeing these enormous creatures, Yu Ming was startled. Before he could react, the lama patted the wild boar's mouth and said, "General, please gift us a few cannons, preferably not too big ones."

"With the aid of cannons, these war beasts would be even more ferocious!"

Yu Ming couldn't figure out why these lamas suddenly wanted cannons, but he simply tossed his hand and released five Portuguese cannons.

They were delivered, and they happened to match the five large wild boars that the lamas had somehow managed to produce.

"Perform well, don't let this hall down. Whether you are rewarded or punished in the future depends on this battle!"

After saying this, Yu Ming rushed off to feed his soldiers medicine. He didn't care about the consequences of so many Eight Banner soldiers taking pills; all he wanted to do was take Kaiyuan City as quickly as possible!

Boom! Boom! Boom!

One cannon shot after another rang out, and heavy solid iron bullets flew out at high speed, crashing heavily onto the city walls of Kaiyuan.

Fully armed soldiers of the Polu Army, holding muskets, stood on the city wall, looking down with solemn expressions. Behind them, many citizens from the city also ran to help resist.

They were not responsible for directly fighting on the battlefield, but were mainly responsible for logistical work, such as helping to carry the wounded down, bandaging the injured soldiers, and transporting various supplies to the city walls.

As for cooking for the soldiers, the Polu Army did not ask them for help, but instead let the original cooks continue to be in charge of cooking.

Food and drink are of paramount importance. An army that dares to easily hand over this aspect to others is clearly just waiting for them to find an opportunity to poison it. If anything goes wrong, the entire army will immediately lose its fighting capacity.

Because there were not many men left behind, the Polu Army was somewhat struggling to defend the city, especially since the Qing army outside was attacking from three directions at the same time, which made them even more unsure of the enemy's strength and weaknesses.

Everyone knew that the Qing army could not launch a fierce attack from all three directions at the same time. Although they had a numerical advantage, it was not to that extent. Therefore, only one of these three directions could be the real main attack direction.

At least in terms of sheer scale, these guys seem to be making pretty much the same moves in all three directions.

A scream suddenly came from a section of the city wall. Luo Ping, who was pondering which direction the enemy was preparing to launch their main attack from, turned his head and saw that a cannonball from the Divine General had actually hit him, instantly blowing off half of a soldier's body.

It's quite amazing, but under normal circumstances, transporting the Divine Might General Cannon wouldn't be easy, because this kind of cannon is quite heavy.

The Qing Dynasty's cannon-casting technology was never very good. The cannon barrels they cast often contained various air bubbles, which made their cannons particularly prone to bursting.

To avoid such a thing from happening, even though the cannons used by the Qing court did not have large calibers, they still made the cannon barrels very thick, so that a cannon like the Shenwei General Cannon would weigh at least 1000 jin (500 kg).

Now, the outside world is covered in snow, and the carriages often get stuck in potholes. Such road conditions greatly increase the difficulty for the Qing army to transport artillery, but they have found other shortcuts to transport cannons.

Those who took the elixir and underwent a physical transformation to become the Longevity Army possess extremely strong physical attributes and a powerful self-healing ability. Even if injured, they can recover completely in a short time.

With these conditions in place, the Qing army directly used these mutated soldiers as the main force for transporting artillery; in case any artillery fire occurred accidentally...

If a gun rolls off a gun carriage, or if a gun carriage gets stuck in a ditch, they will use brute force to move it out.

The bloody scene brought about by the shelling made many of the new soldiers who had joined the Po Lu Army tremble with fear, but fortunately the veterans in their ranks managed to keep their morale up.

"Don't panic, everyone stay calm! Those Qing dogs don't have many cannons; they can't fire too many shells!"

"Stand firm! Nobody runs around. Shells don't have eyes; the more you run, the easier it is to get hit!"

Hearing this, many soldiers were at a loss, but they still subconsciously chose to obey the orders of the veterans beside them.

The training they had received in the past period had taught them what obedience meant, and seeing the calm and composed demeanor of these veterans, they did indeed feel that the cannon was not as terrifying as they had imagined; being killed by it was simply bad luck.

The veterans mixed among the new recruits were all young guards recruited by Rock from the system. These highly motivated soldiers had seen many big scenes, so their ability to withstand pressure was particularly strong.

Such shelling was nothing to them, and their calm and composed demeanor naturally calmed the other recruits down as well.

Then more cannonballs came crashing down, but in that short time, the dwarves had already pushed the two ballistae and aimed them at the Manchu artillery below.

Two huge crossbow bolts were fired with great force, tracing an arc before accurately hitting the Qing army artillerymen behind a Divine Might General Cannon.

The crossbow bolt pierced through several artillerymen instantly, pinning them to the ground like skewers of candied hawthorns. Before the Qing artillerymen who had been pierced could scream in agony, the explosives that had been attached to the crossbow bolt detonated.

In a massive explosion, the artillerymen who had been skewered like candied hawthorns were instantly blown to pieces, their shattered internal organs and flesh flying everywhere, splattering onto the nearby artillerymen.

Strangely, the artillerymen who were drenched in water didn't seem too shaken. For some reason, after smelling the pungent smell of blood, these guys actually showed an abnormal excitement on their faces.