Zheng Zhilong was full of confidence, Wang Zheng and others were filled with emotion. When his heart was fierce, a small group of people including Chen Zhenhui also stopped running away.

Then they saw the unforgettable wonder of this life.

At the same time, nearly three hundred cannons were fired together. The flames of the cannons were squirting out like blooming fireworks, and they were different one after another. After the guns were sprayed, they retreated violently, and then dozens of cannons were fired together. The entire hull tilted to the other side, as if the hull was about to fall, but it soon calmed down again...

This is the first time in everyone's life that this kind of thrilling scene was seen. The situation of hundreds of cannons firing together exceeded the strangest imaginations in the minds of these Jiangnan literati.

Amid the roar like thunder, countless shells flew towards the river beach at a very high speed. People in Jiangxinzhou screamed, and many people simply jumped into the water to hide in the cold.

Chen Zhenhui's face was pale and her body trembled, saying, "I haven't heard of it, I haven't seen it!"

"It's really spectacular, spectacular, spectacular!" Even though there were various emotions such as unannoyance, tragic, resentment, etc., Wu Yingji couldn't help but exclaim loudly.

However, the Cao Jiang soldiers under the shells did not have the feelings of these scholars. They saw the flashing fire, saw the cannons abdicate violently, and saw the shells flying out. When they heard the screams, they felt that the shells were coming.

Almost in an instant, all the Cao Jiang soldiers were defeated!

More than 10,000 people were not restrained by anyone, and there was no military discipline at all. In the first round of artillery firing, all the Cao Jiang soldiers who reacted were to turn around and escape!

Many officers also tried to restrain their subordinates. Some officers subconsciously cursed and threatened to behead their escaped subordinates. In despair, Liu Kongzhao planned to take his commander flag forward, but the position several miles long had completely collapsed. A large number of soldiers directly lost their weapons and began to turn around and escape. They might have seen that the city gate was quite crowded, and subconsciously ran along the river bank to the east and west sides.

This was just a reaction when the cannon sounded. When the first shell fell, the scream immediately sounded.

As Lu Zhenfei said, Hutchison's gunners were just scrambling the cannons. When the artillery fired a large scale, more than 90% of the shells landed in a very accurate manner. A large number of Cao Jiang soldiers were still running, and the shells landed directly among them.

The whistling and screams of the shells were mixed together. Gu Gao saw a shell that directly knocked a Cao Jiang Bing's head flattened, leaving only his body, as if his body could still move. He ran forward a few more steps before falling down. The shell continued to fly forward and hit a person's back. It seemed that there was a crackling sound from a long distance away. The man was knocked away and blew blood in the air. It was obviously not alive.

More artillery shells plowed in the crowd, and the flesh-and-blooded roads were plowing in the crowd. The whistling shells were smoking and came quickly in the crowd, hitting the target, bounced up, flew, killing and wounding large areas of soldiers, whether they were running east-west, running towards the city gate, or standing in a daze, under the shells, they didn't care what your emotions were, whether they were angry or timid, whether they wanted to fight or surrender, whether they were an ordinary soldier or a general wearing heavy armor, almost anyone hit by the shells would only turn into a ball of flesh and blood, that's it, there was no exception.

The bombardment of hundreds of shells should be catastrophic. Normally, this round of close-range bombardment would have killed or injured more than a thousand people. The entire river beach would become a hell on earth, with blood and human flesh everywhere. But the death and injury of the Ming army was not actually tragic... Zheng Zhilong knew it in his mind. If the killing was too fierce, it would cause dissatisfaction among the people in Jiangnan, and the emotional damage might take a long time to be relieved.

Solid shells fall on the riverside, whether they are mudflats, sandy fields, soft black mud ground, or slopes covered with turf and shrubs. These terrains are relatively energy-absorbing, so the kinetic energy of the shells is much reduced, and of course the lethality is reduced.

The artillery of the second and third rounds became even more obvious. The gunner deliberately adjusted it a little, extending the artillery fire a little, blocking the Ming army's running around. He lay there honestly and was fine. Many of them continued to run around were hit by shells, and they died miserably.

When the warships began to turn on the river, there were few people standing on the entire beach, and almost all the people ran in. The brave men, such as Chen Zhenhui and others, hid several miles away to observe the situation on the battlefield. The situation on the battlefield made them feel a little embarrassed, but they were also glad for the surviving soldiers.

Three rounds of nearly a thousand shells were hit, and all the Cao Jiang soldiers were lying on the ground. There were smoke and dust rising everywhere. There was chaos on the Jiangxinzhou and the river beach. The artillery had stopped for almost a moment, but no one dared to stand up.

Liu Kongzhao's flag also fell down. It should be that the flag bearer dared not hold the flag to attract firepower targets. Just now, many artillery bombarded the flag, and then the flag officer quickly threw away the flag and never dared to raise it high again.

After confirming that the cannons would not be fired for a while, a large number of Cao Jiang soldiers ran to the east and west, and all their weapons were thrown away. A large number of people were even running wildly on the cold beach ground with barefoots.

More than 10,000 people ran away instantly, and a small number of them lie on the ground and still dared not move. The ground was covered with messy items and human corpses. Within fifteen minutes, an armed force that was leaned by the civil and military officials in Nanjing City was still a war-capable armed force disappeared.

The defeated soldiers are the most difficult to gather again, especially the defeated soldiers who were scared out. Except for the officers and soldiers of the Hechi Camp, most of the Caojiang soldiers settled in Nanjing. If they ran away like this, they must have hid at home and dared not come out again. They wanted to reorganize this barely "elite" camp and pull out the war again. It is obviously an impossible task to complete.

There are still many Beijing soldiers on the top of the city. After all, the gate of Shuiguan is far away from the river, about three miles away, and nearly four miles away. People feel that artillery may not be able to hit that far.

Under everyone's gaze, a group of people surrounded Liu Kongzhao, wearing a red python robe, and ran wildly. The people near the city gate had run away. Liu Kongzhao fought hard among a pile of stinky feet and broke socks, and finally rushed into the Sanshan Gate.

Zhao Zhilong was already waiting at the top of the city, watching the embarrassed Liu Kongzhao walk up the ramp steps.

"How could this be?" Zhao Zhilong said with a confused look on his face: "Jiang Jiang's troops dispersed like this?"

"I want to ask you?" Liu Kongzhao said angrily: "Who asked you to set off artillery at Jiangxin? Can your general cannons be able to hold on to others?"

The Ming army shells were indeed fired just now, only at the edge of the river, and they were still very far away from the Heji fleet.

"It's over if you don't fight!"

"If you fight, you won't finish it?"

The two nobles were familiar with each other and had good friendship, but now they were like two cockfighting cocks. They stared at each other fiercely, with obvious murderous aura in their eyes. Zhao Zhilong hated Liu Kongzhao for being incompetent in the army, and Cao Jiangzhao performed too badly. Liu Kongzhao naturally hated Zhao Zhilong for implicating him, which made him have to act in a bombardment. As a result, his efforts for many years were bombarded by others in several rounds of cannons, and his true colors were revealed. This time, it was really finished.

"Forget it." Liu Kongzhao lowered his head. His Cao Jiang Bing was over. Zhao Zhilong and other nobles still had the Beijing camp soldiers. Now is not the time to be tough.

"Close the city gate." Zhao Zhilong roared at the top of the city: "If anyone wants to enter the city, ask them to take a detour to Tongji Gate."

"Xin Chengbo feels that they will attack the city?" Liu Kongzhao stepped onto the city and looked down at the battlefield in front of him.

There were corpses everywhere, and there were not many dead people, but they were scattered widely. The battlefield was full of discarded weapons and flags, as well as various items. It looked like a newly held temple fair. For some reason, everyone ran away, leaving a ruined place.

"Damn..." Liu Kongzhao cursed, not knowing what to say.

Zhao Zhilong glanced at him and whispered: "Look at the Beijing Army."

Liu Kongzhao looked around and found that there were more than 10,000 Beijing soldiers on the top of the city at Sanshanmen. They were the personnel collected by the Governor's Office of the Five Army for several consecutive days. It is estimated that at most 20,000 people could be found in Nanjing. It is impossible to have more.

After so many years of bad accounts, there are still more than 100,000 people on the books, but in fact, at most 30,000 people, so it is impossible to have more.

The nobles and civil servants were very clear about this matter. Even if they had the decree to order the censors to join the Qing army, they could not find out a few vacant quotas.

"I think the Hutchison fleet is going to turn around..." Liu Kongzhao said with anticipation: "Maybe it's going to withdraw."

Zhao Zhilong shook his head and said, "It's impossible to leave like this..."

"What should I do after the battle is over, and how do I explain to you?"

"I can only hide this matter..."

"Fortunately the eunuch guarding did not come, and there is still room for relief."

"I didn't come either, only Chen Yuting and others came."

"This time, you will have to bleed heavily."

"I will ask myself to step down after this matter." Liu Kongzhao spread his hands and said, "I have no soldiers to take over, and I can't take this responsibility."

"Who isn't?" Zhao Zhilong said with a grim smile: "We have always been proud. Someone has long wanted to give us a try. There are a lot of oil in the Beijing camp. Who doesn't want to come up? Well, ask them to come up. Hutchison will come back in more than half a year to see what they will take."

Liu Kongzhao said quietly: "They just want to make money. After Hutchison comes, they will surrender."

"We can only do this..."

This topic is quite taboo. If Hutchison is a Jurchen, these nobles will run away if they can. But Hutchison... Liu Kongzhao suddenly remembered that he bought maritime insurance and invested money in the maritime trade. Zhao Zhilong's memory suddenly improved. It seemed that he had invested money in several silk factories. These silk factories cooperated with Hutchison. In addition, they all sat in the carriage sold by Hutchison, which was quite luxurious and comfortable. The door handles were all gold jewelry, which completely satisfies the conceit of these nobles.

The two nobles stopped talking tacitly, and then looked at the battleship that had adjusted its hull on the river with concern.

The huge warships and sharp artillery gave all the people on the city, including the Caojiang soldiers who ran away on the beach, the fishermen on Jiangxinzhou, the Nanjing gentry and the people who hid under the city. At this moment, everyone remembered and fully understood the power of the firearms, but they did not fully know at this time, and all this was not over.
Chapter completed!