Chapter 308 Shelling the Golden Account
On the first day of June, Li Guodong's army arrived at the tribe where the Korqin Beilezaisang Jinguan was located. This was his second time to come to the tribe where the Korqin Jinguan was located.
Compared to the time I came to Korqin tribe five years ago, the current tribe where Korqin Golden Tent is located is larger than last time. Since the last attack by Li Guodong, Zaisang returned to Korqin tribe and merged several small tribes near the Korqin tribe into one, forming a large camp with more than 20,000 people.
Like the last attack on the Korqin tribe, he arrived near the location of the Korqin Golden Treasure. Li Guodong asked the team to enter the woods to rest. He personally took Han Dashan, He Xing, Zhang Wei and other generals to a small hill nearby and looked at the Mongolian camp from a distance.
The tribes of the Korqin people ahead were very different from those when they came five years ago. A circle of wooden fences was set up around the tribal camps brought by the Korqin Golden Tent. Just like the barracks of the Han and Jurchens, a watchtower, an arrow tower, and a wooden camp gate were built, which looked like a regular camp.
This is the first time that Zhang Wei, the Thousand General Officer of the Camel Firearms Team, came to the tribe where the Korqin Golden Tent is located. Last time, Li Guodong rushed thousands of miles to attack, but as an infantryman, he did not come with him. This time he saw the location of the Korqin Golden Tent, and he was very excited.
"Military Gate, we have been to the Korqin tribe for seven or eighth days. Every day I see your cavalry killing the Tartars and horses stepping on the camp. Our firearms have not been used once. It should be useful tonight, right?" Zhang Weiyao pointed to the Korqin camp in the distance and asked Li Guodong.
Li Guodong thought for a moment. Last time he attacked the Korqin tribe five years ago. This time, the Korqin people built a camp. Li Guodong could no longer repeat the same trick. Moreover, this time it was different from the last time. The last time he attacked the Korqin tribe was in a severe cold winter, with a thousand miles of ice and three feet of snow. The attacked Korqin tribe probably couldn't even survive. Even if he survived by chance, he would not be able to come out to report the news. However, this time it was a summer attack, and there were inevitably fish that missed the net. Maybe Korqin Beile Zaisang had already learned the news, and it was hard to say that he set a trap and was waiting for him. Even if he didn't set a trap, it would be difficult to attack the camps built by the Korqin people. It would be impossible to step on the golden tent like last time.
Thinking of this, Li Guodong said to Zhang Wei: "You will perform tonight. Since the Korqin Tartars are prepared, we can't attack, we can only attack with force! Open the camp with cannons and we will attack again."
Li Guodong's judgment was correct. There were many missed fish in the tribes that had attacked before. Zaisang already knew that someone would definitely attack the tribe where his golden tent was located. However, the young and strong who could join the army followed the Great Jin Kingdom to fight for Chahar. Only some women, children, elderly and weak left their homes. Therefore, Zaisang did not think of setting up an ambush in the barracks and ambush the abominable attackers, but ordered to strengthen the alert. If someone attacked, he would not be able to defend himself and asked someone to go to Shengjing to report and request the Jurchen soldiers to come for rescue.
Although Zaisang was a Mongolian, he also read a little bit of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". He knew that the enemy was strong and we were weak, so he could only defend himself.
Set up an ambush in the barracks? Stop making trouble. There are only women, children, old and weak in your hands. What's the use of setting up an ambush? Obviously, the attackers must be cavalry. Zaisang knew that once someone was attacked into the camp, he would set up a few torches, yurts and grass to burn them, and then whistle them. Zaisang could not bear the loss. He did not dare to send people to pursue him, so he could only suffer losses in vain.
But Zaisang forgot one thing: this era is different from the Three Kingdoms era. Weapons develop and artillery is born. Even a strong city can be bombarded by artillery, let alone a simple camp like him.
That night, Li Guodong led his team out of the woods and came outside the camp of the Korqin Jinzhang Tribe.
"Drop off the weapons from the camels, raise the cannons, and all the camels squat down and form a circle outside." Zhang Wei, the chief general of the camel firearms, gave the order.
The soldiers removed the cannon barrels, gun mounts and wheels from the camel's back, and set up cannons in the camel city; the nine-headed bird musket was also removed by the soldiers and mounted on the camel's body. The tiger squat cannon and the hundred-jin Folang machine cannon was also removed and mounted.
"Light up the stove, put the shells into the stove and burn them red, and then fill them in, which can ignite the Tartars' tents and piles of forage." Li Guodong asked the stove to make a fire.
To set fire to the Korqin people, the rockets were originally the best weapon. However, Li Guodong wanted to keep the rockets for the granary camp to deal with the Jurchens, so he used arson bombs to deal with the Korqin people.
Six six-pound field guns, two twelve-pound howitzers were set up one mile away, the artillery team set fire to ignite the furnace, and placed the solid shells in the furnace to heat them. Eight Flang machines and eight tiger squat guns were pushed a hundred steps away from the Korqin camp, and all the muzzles were aimed at the Korqin camp. These small cannons did not require heating shells, and the shells of the Flang machine gun could not be heated.
"Why are there anyone making fires on the grasslands a mile away?" The Korqin Mongolian soldiers standing on the watchtower discovered the flashing fire in the darkness and were very surprised. They observed for a long time that the fire was red and the color was very dark. They did not see anyone firing a torch there. They only saw the red light flashing, as if it was burning charcoal fire.
Before the Korqin people could understand, they saw orange-yellow lights flashing in the red lights a mile away in front of them. Then they heard the roar of thunder, and the grassland ahead was like lightning flashing.
Only a row of red fireballs like meteors flew towards their camp. When the fireballs passed over the watchtower, the people of Korqin heard a whistling sound.
The burning shells hit the Korqin camp. A twelve pound howitzer shell just landed above a yurt. The yurt suddenly faded into a large piece. The fiery red shells quickly caused a fire, and the Mongolian soldiers hit by the shells immediately ignited a raging fire.
Red fireballs roared after red fireballs, and many yurts had been ignited. Fires caught everywhere in the camp, and the Korqin people who woke up from their sleep rushed out of the yurts.
"Enemy attack! Enemy attack!"
"It's a fire!"
The Korqin people were in chaos. After all, most of the Korqin people who stayed in the tribe were women, children, elderly and weak, and had no combat experience. They were bombarded at night and fired everywhere in the camp. These Mongolians ran around in panic. They didn't know how many enemies were hidden on the opposite side in the dark.
Several hot shells hit the stable, and the hay in the manger ignited a fire. The frightened war horse broke free from the reins and rushed out of the stable.
A shell fell on the pile of forage and soon a raging fire ignited.
The panicked Mongolians ran around in the camp like headless flies. Someone was hit by hot shells and turned into blood and flesh.
The shells kept falling into the camp, and more and more yurts were ignited. The fires in the Korqin camp soared into the sky, and the torches shone the camp like daylight. The Mongolians who escaped from the yurt were exposed to the eyes of the Ming army. The entire camp was completely in chaos, and the horses rushed out of the stables rushed into the camp, and many Mongolians were knocked over and trampled to death.
Li Guodong had been observing the movements in the camp. He found that the Mongols ran around and there were almost no mechanical traps in the camp, only a trap was hidden in the camp. However, this trap allowed the Korqin people to enjoy themselves: several Korqin people tried to rush out of the camp, but stepped on the air behind the camp gate and fell into the trap...
Three shells hit the camp gate one by one, and the camp gate of the wooden fence was crushed to pieces. The shells hit the wooden fence beside the camp gate, opening holes one by one.
"Kill!" Li Guodong jumped onto the horse, pulled out his knife and pointed at the door that was bombarded by the cannon.
Two thousand iron cavalry flocked into the Korqin camp. Li Guodong and his cavalry bypassed the trap and rushed into the camp, as if they were entering a no-man. The sharp steel knife flew up and down, and countless Korqin people were chopped off their heads.
Chapter completed!