Chapter 85: Hauge is captured
Wanshan pulled out his custom-made rifle, a rifle with a long barrel. It was handmade, taking him over a month to complete. Its effective range was 300 meters, and its maximum range was 450 meters. He climbed to the roof of the arrow tower and lay there, waiting for his opportunity.
Zhao Xiaofei watched Wanshan climb up and continued to direct the others, saying, "Do what you need to do! Just pretend you didn't see anything and continue cleaning up."
General Zhou directed the escorts to continue adjusting the torsion catapults, aligning their direction. The gunners twisted the levers vigorously, slowly leveling the casting rods. They placed the shells in the casting baskets, ready to fire at any moment.
Hauge rode forward and stopped 250 paces from the city wall. He carefully observed the terrain and pondered how to capture the small city. Looking at the pile of corpses below the city, Hauge felt depressed. Although the dead were all Han soldiers, it had damaged their reputation.
He saw people busy on the city walls, cleaning up the battlefield and disposing of corpses. The morale of the Ming army was low, and everyone walked listlessly.
Wan Shan, lying on the roof of the arrow tower, kept muttering: "Move forward! One step, two steps, three steps, four steps! Shoot!"
With a snap, a Minié bullet flew out of Wanshan's gun and spun into Hauge's right chest. Wanshan cursed, "Shit! I missed!"
General Zhou had been waiting for Wanshan's gunshots for a long time! He immediately ordered 600 escorts to raise their muskets and shoot at the guards around Hauge.
Hauge was sitting on his horse when he suddenly felt a heavy hammer strike his chest. The force was so strong that the bullet dragged him off his horse. Goshaha and the guards beside him were in a state of panic, none of them expecting to be hit by a musket from such a distance. The captain of the guards reacted immediately and jumped off his horse first to run towards Hauge. However, before he could reach Hauge, he was knocked to the ground by three bullets.
The other guards and Goshha were also beaten to the ground. He Luohui and Yang Shan were also dumbfounded. They immediately organized all the Eight Banners soldiers to go to the front to rescue Hauge. If Hauge died, none of them would survive.
So the two of them led all their men to rescue Hauge. When they were less than 200 steps away from Hauge, many small dots appeared in the sky. He Luo looked up and was terrified. These were the artillery shells from the Ming army. He subconsciously turned around and ran back.
Boom boom boom! With a loud bang, Yang Shan and He Luohui's men were blown to pieces.
Zhao Xiaofei directed the catapults to continue firing, giving Zhou Shuai and his men time to kill Haoge. Unfortunately, Haoge was incredibly unlucky. Despite all the rifle fire, Haoge remained unscathed except for the first shot. Wanshan also fired several shots, but they were blocked by the guards' bodies.
One of them, Goshha, had a leg wound and blood was flowing into the pillar, but he still pulled Hauge to crawl towards his own position.
When General Zhou saw this, he immediately shouted, "Escorts from the capital, follow me down! Let out the rope!"
None of the bodyguards brought from the capital have been seriously injured so far. After all, they performed at their best under the daily training of Commander Zhou.
As soon as they finished speaking, they took a rope from their waists, tied one end to the wall, and threw the other end down. Everyone slid down the rope. They planned to capture Hauge alive!
Yes! That's right! They wanted to capture Hauge alive! They had already agreed that if Wanshan's first shot didn't kill him, but injured him, they would try to capture him alive. He Luohui and Yang Shan's troops were blocked outside by artillery fire, and Hauge and his men were being beaten to the ground by rifled muskets. This was a good opportunity!
When General Zhou descended the city wall, he felt his feet were soft. He couldn't even touch the ground; it was covered in corpses. Once all 300 men had descended, General Zhou led the charge, hunched over, shield in one hand and musket in the other.
Yang Shan and He Luo would see someone coming down from Gongji County, and they would know something was wrong! The Ming army wanted to capture him alive! How could this be possible? When would the Qing Dynasty ever allow the Ming army to capture the prince alive? They were almost done with capturing the Ming prince alive! So they didn't care, and charged forward like mad dogs.
You wouldn't believe it, but more than a dozen of them actually rushed out of the sea of fire and out of Zhao Xiaofei's bombing zone. They were racing against time with Zhou Shuai and the others to see who was faster. Sure enough! Jianlu was one step faster than Zhou Shuai and the others, and they reached Haoge first.
At this time, Haoge had fainted, but he was still breathing! They quickly prepared to pull Haoge away, but at this moment, Zhou Shuai shouted: "Fire!"
Hundreds of muskets unleashed Minié bullets, whistling towards the enemy. Clouds of blood sprayed over the enemy, and dozens of them fell instantly.
General Zhou and his escorts finally arrived. Haoge's armor was the most conspicuous. Two strong escorts held his arms on the left and right and ran back. General Zhou organized the battle formation and retreated step by step!
When He Luohui and Yang Shan saw Haoge being captured, they immediately shouted, "Save the prince and you'll be rewarded with 10,000 taels of silver and promoted five ranks! Charge!"
The two men led the remaining Eight Banners and Han troops and rushed forward. The cavalry was fast, and with He Luohui and Yang Shan leading the charge, they quickly reached a point very close to General Zhou. Zhao Xiaofei, seeing this, did not dare to fire any more cannonballs and immediately joined Wanshan in firing towards the city.
Zhao Xiaofei and his escorts were arranged in three rows. The first row would fire, then retreat to the back row to reload. Then the second row would fire, then retreat, and the third row would fire. This cycle continued, with continuous firepower output! Because of the long distance, they could only emphasize firepower output.
With Zhou Shuai and his men also firing, the enemy couldn't even touch a hair. Zhou Shuai quickly retreated to the city wall, tied up Haoge with a rope, and dragged him into the city. Then, under the cover of Zhao Xiaofei and Wanshan, they quickly climbed back one by one.
When they reached the top of the city wall and counted the number of people, they found that there were only two injured people among the 300 people, and both of them were injured because of sprained ankles. They were very happy to capture Haoge alive.
Yang Shan and He Luohui, who were standing below the city, had bloodshot eyes. They nodded their heads. "When they arrived, there were more than 10,000 people, but now there are less than 5,000!" It's not even dark yet! Just thinking about the strength of this Ming army is terrifying!
Moreover, they even dared to go down to the city and kidnapped the commander and flag owner, Hauge. If the two of them led their troops back to report to Huang Taiji, Huang Taiji would have killed their entire families.
But it would be extremely difficult to attack the city with such a small number of troops, and there were so many wounded. He Luohui said to Yang Shan: "Let's surround the city first! Send someone to notify the Khan!"
"Okay!" Yang Shan immediately arranged for people to go to the north to look for reinforcements.
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