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Part One: Penghu Storm Chapter 531: Capturing Sapporo

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    Sapporo is already in sight!

    The Sapporo Castle Wall was also built along the water, so there are two sides facing the water, the southwest side is the dry gate, and the northeast side is the water gate.  The main attack direction of Huben Guard is the west gate.  The men and horses of the Huben Guards set up their formation about 300 steps away from the city wall.

    Cai Jiuzhou stood there, observing the city wall of Sapporo with a telescope.

    The city wall of Sapporo is about four feet high and spreads horizontally for about two miles.  There is a tower in the middle of the city gate. There are two horse faces on each side of the city gate. There are towers in the corners of the city on both sides.  The Sheep and Horse Wall outside the city has not been repaired for many years, so most of it is gone, and only a small part of a few parts is left.

    Cai Jiuzhou nodded and said to Shi Weide beside him: "Ignore other places, concentrate all the artillery and fire at the city tower. After the city gate is opened, send the musketeers to rush into the city."

    Shi Weide responded: "Yes." Then he turned around and immediately ordered the soldiers to prepare artillery.

    After a while, three or two two-thousand-jin Hongyi cannons, two one-thousand-jin Hongyi cannons, three No. 1 Franco cannons, four No. 2 Franco cannons, three No. 3 Franco cannons, and six  All the tiger crouching cannons have been laid out.

    Except for the Tiger Crouching Cannon, whose firing range is too short and cannot hit the city wall within the existing distance, the other fourteen cannons have all been adjusted for launch and angle, and are loaded with gunpowder and solid bullets.

    With an order from the commander of the artillery pair, the gunners of the fourteen artillery pieces immediately lit the fuses.

    ¡°Boom¡ªboom¡ªboom¡ªboom¡ª¡±

    With the huge roar, it made people¡¯s eardrums hurt.  Yamamoto Hideaki, who was commanding the defense of Takeda Tsubasa and the dead Kenheijiro on the castle tower, felt as if the city wall was shaking.

    Eighty of the fourteen solid bullets hit the city wall, smashing tunnels of different sizes into the city wall, and the edges of the tunnels were covered with cracks.  Another four hit the city gate, making the city gate "dong, dong" sound and causing dust to fall.  Although the city gate is made of half-foot-thick wooden boards and covered with iron sheets.  But a few cracks still appeared.

    And two more fell directly on the tower, causing the doors and windows of the tower to break and sawdust flying everywhere.  Several soldiers were also killed.  The other soldiers on the tower were also frightened and hid.

    Takeda Tsutomu and Yamamoto Hideaki glanced at each other.  Both of them were shocked by the siege tactics of Huben Guards.  In Takeda Tsubasa's view, the siege should be done close to the city wall, with ladders or tower carts set up.  Then climb up and attack, understanding that it means scooping up people to pile up, scooping up people's lives in exchange for the city.  Therefore, siege battles often cause the greatest losses.  General generals will try to avoid siege warfare.  The Tiger Guards completely subverted the traditional concept of Takeda Tsubasa. The troops did not get close to the city wall at all, but launched fire and bombardment from a distance. It seemed that they planned to forcefully blast the city gate open.  I couldn't help but be horrified in my heart, could a siege be fought like this?

    In fact, the greatest role of heavy artillery is not in defending the city, but in attacking the city.

    Heavy artillery like the Hongyi Cannon is really powerful and is used in field battles.  It was bulky and inconvenient to transport, and it was used to defend the city, and because black powder was not very effective in this era, even shotgun shells were used.  However, the lethality is only concentrated in a small area, and the effect is indeed limited.

    "And if the attacker carries out a long-term siege of the city, the Hongyi cannon will be useless.

    There were similar examples in the Ming Dynasty.

    After Yuan Chonghuan's death, Zu Dasheng defended Daling River and Jinzhou in the two battles, even though the Ming army had a large number of Hongyi cannons.  However, the Qing army adopted tactics such as long-term siege, siege without attacking, and besieging the city for reinforcements. As a result, the two sieges ended with Zu Dajie running out of food and reinforcements and finally surrendering. The result was that a large number of well-made red  The Yi cannon was given to Hou Jin in vain.

    On the contrary, it became the most powerful weapon for the Qing army to break through the fortified cities of the Ming Dynasty.

    Because the Hongyi cannon is used to attack cities, it can give full play to its advantages of long range and high impact. It can be used to attack city towers and walls to suppress the resistance at the top of the city. It can also bombard the city gates and provide

    The siege soldiers opened the gap.  There is no need to scoop up more lives to fill the city.  Some cities that seemed unconquerable at first can now be conquered.

    Fourteen artillery pieces spurted out flames one after another, roaring, and fired the shells mercilessly at the city walls, towers, and gates of Sapporo.  After seven or eight consecutive rounds of bombardment, the city wall was hit the most. The city wall near Sapporo City Gate was densely packed with dozens of large and uneven pits, and the cracks on the city wall were as dense as  Like a spider web.

    The tower was also hit by more than a dozen shellings. Several large holes were cracked in the walls, and two pieces of the roof were smashed in. The rooms in the tower were in a mess, and more than 20 soldiers were killed.  At this time, the defenders in Sapporo City did not dare to stand on the tower at all, and retreated to both sides.Even Takeda Tsubasa and Yamamoto Hideaki stepped aside.

    The entire tower is almost undefended.

    In fact, the artillery focuses on hitting the city gates. Although the accuracy of the artillery is not low, due to the short distance and the concentration of targets, in each round of bombardment, there will always be three or four shells hitting the city gates, so six  After seven rounds, the city gate received more than twenty blows, and four or five dents appeared on the city gate.  If you look at the back of the city gate in the city gate cave, you can find that there are many wood cracks on the city gate, and the door bolts are bent and deformed.

    It was only a matter of time before the city gate was opened, so Cai Jiuzhou immediately ordered a group of musketeers to advance towards the city gate with tiger squatting cannons, preparing to seize the city gate, while another battalion of musketeers marched along the city wall.  Shoot to clear out the defenders on both sides.

    "Boom¡ª¡ª"

    There was another loud noise, and the shells fired by the two Hongyi cannons hit the city gate almost at the same time. The already overwhelmed door bolt finally broke, and the gate of Sapporo Castle separated to the left and right.

    "Run quickly! The Tiger Guards have entered the city."

    "Run! Everyone run! The Tiger Guards are coming."

    The city gate was blasted open by artillery, and the remaining will of the defenders to resist was completely evaporated. The ragtag nature of the Japanese army was also completely exposed. The Japanese soldiers simply ignored the orders of the two generals.  They all escaped from the city wall and fled to the south gate of another Hanmen. The city suddenly became a mess.  Therefore, when the soldiers of Huben Guards rushed into Sapporo City, they basically encountered no decent resistance.

    And Yamamoto Hideaki and Takeda Tsubasa also knew that the situation was over, and if they didn't escape, they might not be able to escape, so they also left Ximen.  Because there is a dock in Sapporo City, and the Japanese ships are moored there, the two men led more than a thousand accompanying soldiers and fled towards the dock in the city, preparing to escape by boat.

    But after walking for a while.  The two found that the avenue leading to the dock was overcrowded and blocked with water, making it difficult to pass.

    It turns out that most of the soldiers also knew that they could escape from Sapporo by boat.  Therefore, everyone fled towards the pier, but how big could the pier in Sapporo City be? With so many people wanting to leave by boat, where would be able to open a boat soon?

    ????????????????????????? Most of the boats have no sailors, and even if they get on the boats, they can¡¯t sail. As a result, more and more people gather, but the boats can¡¯t sail, and instead they block the road leading to the dock.

    Yamamoto Hideaki and Takeda Tsubasa also arrived a little late. They were still hundreds of steps away from the pier, but they just couldn't get through.  So they were so anxious that they just stamped their feet.  At this moment, several gunshots were heard from behind.

    Now the Japanese soldiers are all frightened, so when they hear the sound of gunshots, everyone is frightened, and some people behind them push forward desperately.  The people in front were struggling to hold on to the boats. Some boats with sailors did not care about waiting for others, unmoored and anchored, hoisted the sails, and left the shore.  The soldiers on the ship without sailors didn't care much at this time, and they were all busy untying the cables.  He raised the sail, grabbed the oar and paddled, just to drive the boat away from the shore.  Many people fell into the river due to crowding and fighting.  The entire dock was also in chaos.

    Looking forward, we can see three or four ships sailing away from the shore. Looking back, we can clearly see the soldiers of the Tiger Guard appearing at the other end of the road. The situation is critical.  Yamamoto Hideaki said to Takeda Tsubasa: "Master Takeda, there is no other way now. We can only fight to open a bloody road and seize the ship before we can escape Sapporo."

    Takeda Tsubasa took a look at the situation: "I'm afraid it's too late. The Tiger Guards have caught up with me. Let's do this. You go and seize the ship. I will lead people to resist for a while, and then I will go find you."

    After hearing this, Yamamoto Hideo immediately said: "Okay, let's do it. I will definitely wait for you on the boat."

    After the two agreed, Takeda Tsubasa immediately led half of the soldiers and charged towards the Ming army at the other end of the avenue.  Yamamoto Hideaki also drew his samurai sword and shouted to the remaining soldiers: "Japanese warriors, follow me and fight to the dock."

    With that said, he took the lead and rushed into the crowded crowd. With a wave of the saber in his hand, he chopped down the two soldiers in front of him.

    At this time, Yamamoto Hideaki's followers all knew that if they didn't grab a boat and escape, they would all die here, so they all raised their weapons and started to kill the crowd.  They only killed heads in the crowd and fell to the ground one after another. Yamamoto Hideo, because of his bravery, danced his katana impervious to wind and rain, opened his bow from left to right, and killed more than ten soldiers in a row.

    When the other Japanese soldiers saw this, they were naturally not convinced, so they all raised their weapons to fight back.  However, these personal followers of Hideo Yamamoto were all carefully selected samurai from Hiroo Castle and were also elites in the Japanese army. This was not the case.It was comparable to these rabbles, and it was also the only support for survival at this time. Everyone fought desperately, so they just fought their way through the crowd.

    The other Japanese soldiers were their opponents. Seeing their ferocity, they did not dare to stop them anymore. They retreated to both sides, allowing Yamamoto Hideo to lead his troops to finally reach the dock.

    At this time, there were still twenty or thirty ships, large and small, parked on the edge of the pier. Five or six ships had left the shore, and on every ship that docked, there were many Japanese soldiers aboard.  , there were many soldiers also fighting to get on the boat, fighting for it, and many people used swords and guns, killing countless corpses floating on the river.  And Yamamoto Hideaki also immediately led his men to kill a boat that was parked on the shore. They rushed and killed, first killing the soldiers on the shore who were rushing to get on the boat. Then Yamamoto Hideaki took the lead, pedaling, jumping in three steps, and  He climbed onto the deck of the ship, raised his knife, and chopped down two soldiers into the river. At this time, other followers also boarded the ship, and in a short time they completely controlled the ship.

    Once the boat was in hand, Yamamoto Hideaki felt relieved. Then he ordered his personal followers to stop other soldiers from pedaling the boat, and at the same time ordered to prepare to sail the boat quickly.  At the same time, someone was also sent to inform Takeda Tsubasa to come quickly.

    Among the soldiers accompanying Yamamoto Hideo, there were at least a few who knew how to sail a boat, so everyone was busy pulling up the sails and anchors, adjusting the steering wheels and oars, and getting ready to sail.  At this moment, more than ten large boats were seen coming down the river from upstream, approaching the dock.

    Yamamoto Hideaki saw it and felt a little strange. He was thinking, where is the ship coming from? Could it be the warship of the Tiger Guards?

    Suddenly, there was a loud "Boom - Boom -" sound, and a large amount of smoke spread out from the bows of three large ships. Yamamoto Hideaki couldn't help being surprised. These three ships were actually equipped with artillery.

    It turns out that when Cai Jiuzhou sent troops to attack Sapporo, he estimated that once the city was breached, the Japanese troops would probably escape by boat from the dock.  Cai Jiuzhou selected ten larger ships from the Huben Guards Navy, all of which were equipped with small and medium-sized artillery. The largest was the No. 2 Folan cannon, and placed thirty musketeers on each ship.

    Therefore, after the war started, Cai Jiuzhou asked these ten ships to wait near Sapporo Castle.  After the Huben guards opened the city gate and entered Zapporo, Cai Jiuzhou ordered the ships to dispatch to attack Zapporo's dock.

    However, the defeat of the Japanese army was much faster than Cai Jiuzhou expected. Therefore, by the time Huben Guard's warships arrived at the dock, six or seven ships had already left the dock and sailed to the other side of the Yangtze River.

    The No. 2 Fran machine guns installed on the three leading warships also opened fire immediately. One of the three shells hit the water, stirring up a water column more than two feet high, while the other two shells hit two ships respectively.  One of the missiles hit the ship's building, sending wood chips flying and killing four or five people.  Another one hit the side of a boat less than three feet from the water, making a hole as big as the mouth of a water tank.  Although the breach was above the water, the side plates of the ship near the breach had been shattered, and the sides had actually begun to soak with water.

    Subsequently, the artillery on several other ships also opened fire and bombarded them, but the other warships were equipped with No. 3 Franco cannons and Tiger Crouching cannons, and the distance was simply out of reach.  However, although most of the shells fell into the water, the deterrent effect they brought to the Japanese army was not small.

    Because?p>

    ??

    When Yamamoto Hideaki saw it on the boat, he couldn¡¯t help but was so frightened that his face changed:

    "Hurry up and get out of this damn place!"
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