Late Ming Dynasty: Special Forces in 1645

After the previous day's probing, Jin Shenghuan gained a new understanding of the Xingfu Army's formidable strength. He believed that the Xingfu Army's ability to defeat 20,000 Zheng troops with only a few thousand soldiers was not entirely due to luck, and that their strength was unexpectedly powerful.

But what good are powerful guns and cannons, or strong forces?

If you can defeat an enemy twice your size, what about five times? Ten times?

Faced with an absolute advantage in troop strength, all other advantages will be simply leveled out!

Based on the intelligence gathered by his scouts and the previous day's probing, Jin Shenghuan deduced that the garrison in Qianshan City numbered no more than five thousand.

Therefore, Jin Shenghuan dispatched 20,000 troops to push forward, attempting to capture Qianshan City in one battle with a force several times larger than that of the Xingfu Army!

In Jin Shenghuan's view, even if this battle cannot capture Qianshan City in one fell swoop, it can still severely damage the Xingfu Army and render it unable to fight again.

That's why Jin Shenghuan gave the order to charge forward, disregarding the heavy casualties caused by the bombardment of the Xingfu Army's cannons during the siege. He charged across the moat, using his superior numbers to hold back the defenders on the city walls, while simultaneously digging into the walls under the cover of tall wooden carts.

A multi-pronged approach left the understaffed Restoration Army caught in a dilemma, unable to attend to all aspects of the situation.

According to the Jin army's plan, either the city wall of Qianshan City would be breached, or the garrison on the city wall would be killed. Jin Shenghuan really couldn't think of any other way for the Xingfu Army to break through.

But reality often falls short of expectations, and Jin Shenghuan misjudged three things:

The first thing was that the cannons on the city walls were unexpectedly powerful. Before the Jin army could even cross the moat, they had already suffered thousands of casualties from the bombardment, making it difficult to send reinforcements.

The second thing was that the strength of the Restoration Army was unexpected. The Jin soldiers who had finally managed to climb the city wall were almost all killed.

The third thing was that the fighting spirit of the Jin army was overestimated. As casualties continued to increase, more than 10% casualties were enough to shake the Jin army's will, and more than 20% casualties could cause the Jin army to retreat directly!

Jin Shengheng was far behind and could not quickly learn about the battlefield situation. When the Xingfu Army used exploding shells for the first time, the Jin army's attack on the city was basically declared a failure. Continuing to hold on would only increase casualties!

Being far from the front lines, and with his subordinates deliberately concealing the truth, Jin Shenghuan was unaware of the extent of the damage the exploding shells had inflicted on the attacking troops. He was even complacent that the Jin army had withstood the attack.

When the frontline officers were killed and the Xingfu Army used exploding shells for the second time, the Jin army finally lost control and retreated in full force, leaving Jin Shenghuan, who was still unaware of the situation, astonished!

Once the Jin army in the main attack direction was defeated and retreated, the Jin army in the other feint attack directions naturally would not stubbornly continue to attack the city and also withdrew.

The Jin army suffered another round of artillery fire during their retreat, which increased their casualties.

In this siege, the Jin army lost more than half of its 7,000 troops on the main attack route!

Thus, the Jin army's first full-scale siege ended in complete failure!

Watching the enemy retreat like a receding tide, Zhou Lei exclaimed, "Technological advancements have changed warfare!" Then he asked疑惑地, "Gunpowder isn't anything new either, so why don't other defending armies use bombs extensively for defense?"

Yan Huidong carefully put away the observation binoculars and laughed, "You didn't examine the gunpowder captured from Zheng's army carefully, did you?"

While both were black powder, the black powder of this era used low-purity potassium nitrate and had an unreasonable gunpowder ratio, resulting in insufficient power and inadequate destructive force in the bombs, making it cost-effective in actual use.

The black powder that Huang Longkun concocted used potassium nitrate that had undergone multiple purifications, and the gunpowder ratio was based on the best modern formulas. Furthermore, he granulated the gunpowder, significantly increasing its power. Combined with the steel casing forged by Liangzi City, it shattered into fragments upon detonation. Add to that the iron shot, and the destructive power was greater than that of a modern hand grenade!

Zhou Lei nodded in agreement, saying, "It's loaded with several kilograms of gunpowder, so it's normal that it's more powerful than a modern hand grenade. It's just too heavy; otherwise, it could be mounted on a drone!"

Yan Huidong shook his head and said, "Forget it. This thing is not only heavy, but it also needs to be lit with an open flame. Let's wait until Huang Longkun has developed modern gunpowder and modern primers."

Black powder requires an open flame to ignite, and it cannot be ignited when attached to a drone. Therefore, modern primers must be developed first. With primers such as mercuric fulminate, a spring can be used to drive the firing pin to detonate the bomb.

Next, Zhou Lei went to clean up the mess. The casualties of the Xingfu Army were far lower than those of the Jin Army, but there were still more than two hundred casualties, most of whom were killed by arrows shot up from below the city wall.

The Jin army's hundreds of arrows came flying up, making it impossible to defend against them. Even though the Restoration Army had shields, there were bound to be places where they could not be blocked and were hit.

Fortunately, the number of casualties among the Restoration Army was less than thirty, with more than fifty seriously wounded. Most of the others suffered minor arrow wounds, which could be treated with bandaging and a few days of rest before they could return to the battlefield.

Compared to the Jin army's casualties of over three thousand, the number of casualties suffered by the Xingfu Army was extremely low.

Given the Jin army's crushing defeat and massive troop losses, unless Jin Shenghuan is completely insane, they are unlikely to launch an attack for some time.

As it turned out, for the next few days, the Jin army simply besieged the city without attacking, and did not even launch any probing assaults.

He would only occasionally pull out the heavy general cannon and fire a few shots into Qianshan City from outside the effective range of the new cannons.

Although the General's Cannon was cumbersome, inaccurate, complicated to load, and had poor combat capabilities, it could still fire shells into Qianshan City when fired at a 45-degree elevation angle.

The density of houses in Qianshan City is high, and iron lumps often fall from the sky, destroying houses and killing or injuring people, which greatly bothers Zhou Lei.

So Zhou Lei ordered two new cannons to be lowered from the city wall, specifically to be quickly pushed out of the city when the Jin army pushed the Great General Cannon out again.

This time, not only was the chassis of the Jin army's general cannon destroyed, but several enemy artillerymen were also killed or wounded, resulting in a cat-and-mouse game.

During the armistice, there were many "games" like this. For example, the Jin army introduced ballistae in an attempt to outshoot the new cannons.

The result was that the effective range of the ballista and the new cannon was not much different, but the new cannon was much more powerful and could easily destroy the ballista when it entered its range, while the ballista could not do anything to the new cannon.

Zhou Lei knew that while both sides were playing a seemingly boring "game," they were also actively preparing for the second major battle.

That night, a figure walked over from the Jin army's side, raising his hands to indicate that he posed no threat.

Then the man carefully swam across the moat and came to the foot of the city wall. Without saying a word, he just stared silently at the soldiers guarding the city.

A company commander surnamed Zhang from the Xingfu Army came over. By the light of the torch, he could see that the man below was wearing armor but no helmet. Judging from the armor he was wearing, he seemed to be a centurion of the Jin army. So he ordered the rope to be lowered and the man hoisted up the city wall.

Once the man was hoisted onto the city wall, Company Commander Zhang tied the Jin army captain's hands behind his back before asking, "Are you one of Jin Shenghuan's men?"

The Jin army commander nodded, then shook his head violently, his voice hoarse as he said, "I used to be General Wang's subordinate."

Company Commander Zhang was somewhat surprised because this person had the same accent as him, both speaking from southern Shaanxi.

Company Commander Zhang continued, "Which General Wang? Wang Deren?"

"Bah!" Upon hearing the name Wang Deren, the Jin army captain sneered, "Wang Deren is a despicable man; does he even deserve to be our general?"

Company Commander Zhang asked, "Which General Wang are you referring to?"

The Jin army commander respectfully greeted, "Wang Tizhong, General Wang!"

"Oh!" Company Commander Zhang nodded in sudden realization. Wang Tizhong's former subordinates came from the rebel army, and Company Commander Zhang also came from the rebel army. No wonder Company Commander Zhang felt that the Jin army commander's accent was familiar. They must be fellow villagers from southern Shaanxi.

But Company Commander Zhang looked down on Wang Tizhong, mocking him, "Is that the Wang Tizhong who betrayed the rebel leader, murdered General Bai Wang, and then surrendered to the Jurchens? He fought like a dog with Jin Shenghuan, and he deserved to be killed in the end!"

"You..." the Jin army captain roared, "Stop talking nonsense! General Wang thought the rebel leader was dead, and he was forced to surrender to the Qing to protect his brothers!"

Company Commander Zhang scoffed, "Then what about the killing of General Bai Wang? The news that our Commander-in-Chief Li saved the rebel leader has spread throughout the land, so why hasn't Wang Tizhong defected?"

Jin Junqian stammered in his defense, "General Bai Wang... General Bai Wang's death was also forced upon him. Although... but... General Wang had long planned to overthrow the Qing and return to the righteous, but before he could act, he was murdered by that traitor Wang Deren in collusion with Jin Shenghuan."

Although Company Commander Zhang was no longer a member of the rebel army, he was still a former rebel and still felt sympathy for them. He particularly despised Wang Tizhong for betraying his former master, and consequently also disliked this centurion, a former subordinate of Wang Tizhong.