The Military Governor in Dream of the Red Chamber

Abunai's face looked very pale.

He had originally thought he had made a lot of preparations, such as using the captured civilians as the vanguard to fill the trenches and lead the charge.

Then we can follow behind and take advantage of the situation to climb the city wall and capture Qianshan Fort.

For this purpose, he also collected a lot of siege ladders in and around Zhenqiang Fort.

He didn't take the small fortified village with only a few hundred people seriously at all; wasn't it something that could be easily obtained?

But now they can't even get close to the moat, let alone the city wall.

"Where did all these cannons come from?" Abunai couldn't understand.

He had, of course, received some news from Qianshanbao.

For example, he knew that there were cannons in Qianshanbao, but the information he received was that there weren't many cannons.

Deshengbao only provided a dozen or so cannons, which were small cannons like the Tiger Crouching Cannon.

But just now, more than a dozen cannons fired from the south gate alone, right?

There appeared to be artillery fire from other directions as well, and the number of artillery pieces far exceeded what was known.

"No, there definitely aren't many artillery pieces in other directions." Abunai felt that he might have been deceived by Jia Chen.

Jia Chen definitely concentrated most of the artillery at the south gate, and mostly just put a few cannons there as a formality.

It's no wonder Abunai thought that way; the information he received was already outdated.

Of course, probably no one would have expected that Jia Chen would produce so many tiger squat cannons in just over two months.

Abnai immediately sent men to attack from the other three directions.

He wanted to find out which side of the city wall was the weakest.

The other three directions were initially quite frustrating because they encountered too few Northern barbarians, and most of them didn't get too close.

So they fired a few shots.

All that could be heard was the sound of heavy artillery fire from the south, indicating a fierce battle.

They also wanted to kill the northern barbarians and avenge the deaths of their people.

I didn't expect it to arrive so soon.

As the large contingent of northern barbarians charged madly toward the trench, Liu Cheng, Ding Hei, and Hu Zhaozheng wore solemn expressions.

They kept a close eye on the approaching northern barbarians, calculating the distance.

"fire!"

One by one, the northern barbarians who had charged forward fell with screams of agony. Some of the wounded writhed and moaned on the ground, their blood staining the snow red.

"Impossible!" Abunai listened to the report below, unable to believe what he was hearing.

According to his men, there seemed to be about ten cannons on each side of the city wall, especially on the south side.

Even Zhenqiang Fort doesn't have such artillery equipment.

"Kill! Fill in the trenches, make a road, and flatten Qianshan Fortress!" Abunai's eyes were red. He didn't believe any of this and thought that Jia Chen must have some kind of conspiracy to make him mistakenly believe that there were so many cannons in the city.

If we just keep attacking for a little longer, they'll definitely be exposed.

"Charge! Keep charging! Increase the pressure with arrows!" Abnai roared.

Many of the northern barbarian cavalrymen dismounted and began shooting arrows at the city wall from 80 paces away, using light arrows.

They could only shoot that far after dismounting. Normally, mounted archery is done at close range, such as twenty or thirty paces, and they would use heavy arrows for better armor penetration and damage.

The Northern Barbarians have already discovered this location at 80 paces, so the Tiger Crouching Cannon at Qianshan Fortress is no longer within range, making it relatively safe for them.

"Shieldbearer!"

Immediately, soldiers wielding rectangular shields stood in front of the arquebusiers and some three-eyed musketmen. These shields were covered with a layer of iron, which could better protect them from the northern barbarians' arrows.

Clang, clang, clang—many arrows were blocked by the shields.

With the shield bearers protecting them, Huang Xiuer and her team could shoot more safely.

"Target: archers ahead!" Huang Xiuer shouted.

The Northern barbarian archers, 80 paces away, were still within the range of their muskets.

Although the accuracy of the muskets was not high, each team could still take down a few people every time they fired.

Furthermore, the breech-loading cannons would also fire shells at the archers' positions, putting increasing psychological pressure on the Northern Barbarian archers.

"Taiji, we can't keep rushing in like this," a trusted subordinate said anxiously to Abunai. "We've already suffered nearly a thousand casualties."

Abna roared.

Why is this happening?

Although they don't easily attack cities when they plunder, even if they do, it's just a small fortress like Qianshan Fort. Based on past experience, they would at least be on the city walls and fighting with the defending soldiers by now.

But they still can't even touch the trenches, and they can't fill a passage leading to the city gate.

The firepower from Qianshan Fort was too fierce; even though he was standing at the rear, he could still feel it.

Even if someone on our side manages to reach the trench and cross the firing range of the tiger-squatting cannon, they will still be shot at by the three-eyed guns on the city wall.

"Taiji, more than 300 of our brothers have died in battle, and 200 of them are too badly wounded to survive," the confidant said in anguish.

Five hundred people will die at once; such a loss is too great.

You should know that when they raided Zhenqiang Fort a few days ago, they lost almost none of their brothers.

It was only during the subsequent looting and killing in the city that they encountered some sporadic resistance, resulting in a few deaths and injuries—just a few people.

Abnai's forehead veins bulged. With such a huge loss, were they just going to let him withdraw like that?

He's here for revenge, not to suffer another crushing defeat.

The cannons at Qianshanbao roared incessantly.

"Cannon?" Abunai suddenly had a flash of inspiration. "Retreat!"

Upon hearing this, his trusted subordinate breathed a sigh of relief: "Taijima, shall we retreat now?"

It was absolutely tragic.

Attacking Qianshan Fortress solely for revenge is not worthwhile.

Even if we capture Qianshan Fortress, it will only result in killing people to vent our anger, and there will be no other benefits.

He didn't really approve of attacking the city.

"Withdraw first," Abunai said coldly. "Immediately send men to Zhenqiang Fort and bring the cannons from the city wall here."

"what?"

"What are you standing there for?" Abunai shouted. "I want to see what happens when we bombard this front fort with the cannons of Zhenqiang Fort!"

He had seen the cannons at Zhenqiang Fort, which were much larger than those at Qianshan Fort.

It was precisely because they were too big and too heavy that he had no interest in them and simply couldn't move them.

"Taiji, the cannons at Zhenqiang Fort may have been destroyed," the confidant whispered a reminder.

"We can't possibly blow them all up, can we? Go to Zhenqiang Fort and see if there are any good cannons left. Bring them over quickly." Abunai's heart sank.

At the time, because those cannons couldn't be moved, they could only be destroyed.

However, he felt that the destruction was not that complete, and perhaps some parts were not destroyed.

My subordinates immediately took care of it.

Jia Chen and the others secretly breathed a sigh of relief as they watched the retreating Northern barbarians.

Although the Northern barbarians were not able to get close just now, everyone was still under great pressure in the face of so many Northern barbarians.

"That was satisfying! Bombard them! The northern barbarians are crying out for their mothers!" Wang Baisheng laughed loudly. "I never expected this Tiger Crouching Cannon to be so useful. Why didn't I notice it during training?"

"Now you know how powerful firearms are, right?" Huang Xiuer, who was listening from the side, couldn't help but snort. "Back then, when the adults ordered you to train, you resisted. What? Do you think you know more and are more capable than the adults?"

These words made Wang Baisheng and some of the male soldiers around him blush.

Most of them preferred swords to firearms, and the Tiger Crouching Cannon was only trained under Jia Chen's orders.

To be honest, there wasn't that much trust in the Tiger Crouching Cannon.

During training, they only felt that the power was quite strong, but they had no idea how effective it would be on the battlefield.

Now we finally witnessed the power of the Tiger Crouching Cannon's volley firing.

Wang Baisheng couldn't help but recall what Jia Chen had said before: what an astonishing scene it would be if the number of firearms were ten or a hundred times greater than they were now.