The salty and wet smell of sea water comes to us under the blowing of the east wind.

Yao Hongtao stared at the royal soldiers who were slowly coming. Unlike their nervousness, these soldiers seemed to be sure to win.

They even heard loud singing from a distance, which was passionate and exciting to hear.

"Let the artillery prepare."

Yao Hongtao put down the monoculars in his hand. These things were purchased by the merchants' parliament from Western merchants, and almost every general now has one.

"Yes, General." After receiving the order, the deputy general immediately let all the artillery soldiers take their place and load the shells and wait.

At the same time, soldiers holding flintlock rifles ran back and forth on the city walls, and each found their own shooting position.

Everything was ready, the deputy general frowned and said, "General, there seemed to be not many soldiers in the Great Yu Kingdom, there were only about 20,000 people. Perhaps we could defeat them head-on."

Yao Hongtao glanced at the deputy general and said lightly: "Do you think the Northern Royal army was the scattered soldiers and brave soldiers of Li Chuyuan? When these soldiers used flintlock rifles to defeat the barbarians in Jizhou, you didn't know where they were!"

The deputy general's face turned red. After successfully defeating the city several times, he was very confident in the current firearm army. In his opinion, it was only a matter of time before he defeated Li Chuyuan.

Because of this, they didn't care about the army in front of them. He said: "The general seems to be a little bit ambitious and destroy his own majesty. Now the facts prove that the loyal soldiers who are loyal to the vassal kings are far less loyal than those who are loyal to the merchants' parliament. Similarly, I believe that the people must be dissatisfied with the corrupt dynasty in the north, and their soldiers will not work for them."

"Is that true? Have you been to the north? Have you ever known Qingzhou?" Yao Hongtao was a little dissatisfied. This deputy general was not his person, but a member assigned by the merchant council.

He knew very well that the Merchant Council was not very at ease with him, but he chose to betray the King of Chu. Now he had to follow the Merchant Council, not to mention that Cao Kun promised to give himself a seat as a member of the parliament.

The deputy general was speechless again, and he argued: "General, it seems that you don't believe in the Merchant Council enough. Now, under the suggestion of the Qinglong King, the Merchant Council decided to adopt the method he had in Jizhou back then to win people's hearts. You can wait and see. Soon, the people in Jiangnan will gather around the Merchant Council as if they were in Jizhou back then."

"The Green Dragon King." Yao Hongtao frowned. He had seen this Green Dragon King, who seemed very cold, and the most terrifying thing was that this Green Dragon King was very good at bewitching people's hearts.

When the King of Chu used him more, he successfully provoked unrest in Jizhou. However, after he failed to return to Chu, he was refrigerated because the King of Chu was also worried that the Qinglong King would bring cholera to Chu.

Now that the Azure Dragon King has defected to the Merchant Council, he can imagine what will happen if these two freaks are combined together.

Seeing this, the deputy general laughed and said, "This Qinglong King still has a way to win over the people. Now, in order not to pay food, many people have to join the merchants' parliament."

Yao Hongtao suddenly sneered after hearing this. He suddenly felt sad for the people because he knew very well that this slogan would only turn into a piece of empty text in the end.

Throughout history, there has never been a dynasty that does not pay food. Now the merchants' parliament has just painted a big cake for the people to die for them.

"Sad, lamentable." Yao Hongtao didn't know whether he was talking about the deputy general or himself. He stopped talking, but stared at the royal soldiers getting closer and closer.

Outside the city, Lu Fei was observing the situation in Songjiang City.

Unlike in the past, the current Hu Ben Army did not arrange in dense formations like before, but instead showed scattered lines outside the city wall on the east side of Songjiang City.

"There are twenty cannons on this city wall, and the city walls are full of soldiers with flintlock rifles. If the frontal attack will cause great casualties, we will only have 20,000 people. We must take advantage of the breech rifle." Lu Fei said seriously. Even with artillery, siege battles are still a headache.

Especially the soldiers in the city also use firearms, and they can rely on the city wall to use firearms to kill soldiers who attack the city, which is not cost-effective.

So, he continued, "Guo Ming, you immediately lead the soldiers to dig the trench and dig it within fifty meters of the city wall."

"Yes, General."

Guo Ming responded. Now the iron shovel has basically become the standard configuration for the army, in order to dig trenches. After receiving the order, thousands of soldiers were put into it.

So Yao Hongtao was surprised to see that the royal army stopped at a distance of 300 meters and began to dig soil.

"General, what are they doing?" The deputy general was shocked and puzzled. They had never encountered such a situation.

Yao Hongtao shook his head. He was also confused now, but he understood that this must not be a good sign. He shouted to the artillery, "Fire the artillery!"

With his order, the cannons on the city wall suddenly roared, and the solid bullet headed towards the royal army like lightning.

But when the cannon sounded, the royal army opposite immediately scattered and looked for uneven terrain as a barrier to lie down. At the same time, he saw the royal soldiers lying on the ground starting to shoot.

"Bang bang bang..."

A fire broke out, bullets flew around the city wall. Some soldiers could not dodge and were hit. They screamed and fell down, and the city wall suddenly fell into chaos.

Yao Hongtao even felt a layer of cold sweat behind him. When could the royal musket shoot out three hundred meters?

While he was crazy, Lu Fei kept urging soldiers to dig trenches. In fact, there was not much shooting rope at all. After all, the accuracy of shooting 300 meters is not high.

He has gained experience in daily training. In fact, as the distance increases, soldiers' shooting accuracy continues to decline. Even though the range and accuracy of the breech rifle have been greatly improved, people's vision and operation are limited.

It is difficult to accurately shoot a person within 500 meters, and the best shooting distance is still within 200 meters.

So this shooting is just to suppress the opponent's artillery, rather than pursuing killing the enemy.

After some firepower cover, the soldiers dig trenches faster, and no one of the soldiers wanted to be smashed into the city with cannons on the city walls.

Three hours later, a winding trench extended to the city of Songjiang, and other soldiers entered the trench and continued to expand the trench project.

After the initial shelling, the parliamentary army quickly gave up shooting because the royal soldiers hiding into the trench could not be injured by solid bullets at all.

At this time, Lu Fei ordered all the soldiers to enter the trench and surrounded Songjiang City. At the same time, the mortars carried by two people at one door also entered the trench.

They advanced to a distance of fifty meters from the city wall.

After receiving Lu Fei's order, he immediately shot the flowering bullet and lime bullet onto the wall of Songjiang City. Soldiers holding falcon rifles also shot at the wall through the edge of the trench.
Chapter completed!