Jiujiang City is in full swing, and Hukou County, which is separated by a lake, is not too much. Zhang Xianzhong relied on his large number of troops, divided the army of 500,000 into two parts, and launched an attack on the mouth of Jiujiang Lake at the same time.

Zhang Nengqi, the general of Shi Dingbei who was in charge of the command of Hukou, commanded an army of 150,000 people. In addition, there were 50,000 sailors and nearly 1,000 ships cruising in Poyang Lake to prevent the attack of the Ming fleet.

The scale of Hukou County is too small, but it is a small county town with a circumference of six miles, and a city wall is less than two miles long. Of course, such a small county town could not accommodate too many troops, so Chen Yue ordered Jin Xin to be the defender, leading a thousand Dongfan troops, Yu Feng's Anqing army of 3,000 infantry, and 10,000 Beijing battalion soldiers, with a total strength of 14,000 people, plus three or four thousand young people in the city can be sent out of 3,000 or 4,000 young people to help defend the city.

In order to strengthen the garrison of Hukou, Chen Yue transferred 50 cannons, 20 Franc machines and 100 tiger squat cannons, which were placed on the city wall of Hukou. Among the 14,000 troops, there were 3,000 musketeers, distributed on the two walls to the southeast where they were most vulnerable, and in terms of firepower, they were quite strong. But their enemies numbered as many as 150,000, and their strength was ten times that of Hukou.

Hukou county town is built between the mountains, by the mountains and lakes, one side of the water is surrounded by mountains on three sides, the city is too small and there is no moat, but it is also inconvenient to arrange troops between the mountains, and it is also very inconvenient for the enemy to attack the city.

Zhang Nengqi commanded the army to camp in the mountains outside Hukou City, and surrounded Hukou from three sides. On the other side of Poyang Lake, the Ming army's sailor fleet set up a water village on the Yangtze River outside the lake, relying on the powerful artillery fire of the sailor, the western army's small boats could not break through the blockade at all, so the western army on the lake's side of the lake could not surround it at all, nor could it block the reinforcements of the Ming army.

After receiving Zhang Xianzhong's order, Zhang Nengqi organized the army to launch round after round of strong attacks on Hukou County. The soldiers of the Western Army carried the ladder like ants and rushed towards the mouth of the lake in waves, enduring the fierce artillery fire of the Ming army in the city, and carried out the ant siege.

In this era, the technology of flowering shells was far from mature, and although the cannon was powerful, it was a solid shell, which was used to bombard enemy ships and bombard the city walls, and the casualties caused by the scattered infantry were not large.

Bearing the psychological fear, when the Western Army rushed to the foot of Hukou City, the cannon could no longer exert its power. However, the Ming army carried too many firearms, 10,000 enemies, giant flowering bombs, grenades, swarms of bees, flying dragons and other rockets, everything, plus thousands of guns of the Ming army, the first wave of siege of the Western army was defeated before the ladder and the head of the city, leaving five or six hundred corpses.

So Zhang Nengqi ordered to cover the attack of the soldiers with a shield car. The front of the car is a huge shield made of thick hardwood, and the top is covered with two layers of cowhide, a shield car can cover fifty soldiers, such a shield car Zhang Nengqi has made as many as 200 cars in the army, and the carpenters in the army are still making it.

Under the cover of shield carts, a large number of soldiers of the Western Army once again launched an attack on Hukou City. This time, in addition to heavy artillery such as cannons, which can pose a threat to the shield car, ordinary firearms and rockets cannot cause damage to the soldiers of the Western Army behind the shield car, even the guns of the Ming army in the city cannot break the protection of the thick wooden shield.

The accuracy of artillery in this era is very average, in the face of moving shield cars, often not one of ten shots, more than 200 shield cars approached the city, and less than ten were successfully destroyed by artillery......

Relying on the cover of the shield cart, more than 10,000 Western troops approached the city, of which more than 3,000 archers and arrows and musketeers hid behind the shield cart and began to suppress the Ming army at the head of the city, while other Western soldiers raised the ladder and rushed towards the city wall.

Lime bags, grenades, masonry and tiles rained down from the city, and occasionally there was the sound of firecrackers like popping beans, and every moment the soldiers of the Western Army fell to the ground, and the screams rang out one after another, but they were completely suppressed by the sound of guns and cannons.

The ladder was erected at the head of the city, and countless soldiers of the Western Army climbed towards the city with sharp blades in their mouths and shields in their hands, braving the rain of bullets, but they were greeted by the stones that rained down, the hot gold juice, the quicklime flying all over the sky, and the dense rain of bullets that protruded from the walls on both sides like horses' faces.

Almost every soldier of the Western Army who climbed had to face attacks from the left and right sides of the city, and very few could successfully climb to the top of the city.

At every moment, there are countless soldiers of the Western Army who fall from the city screaming, and their lives are as humble as ants at this moment.

When the soldiers of the same team suffered more than thirty percent of the casualties, the other soldiers were already extremely frightened, and the ladder on the city wall was like leading to the abyss and hell, and no one dared to climb it at this time.

The officers of the Western Army who supervised the battle shouted sharply, and most of the soldiers were already timid, cowering and hiding behind the shield carts, and no one wanted to go out again.

In the main formation of the Western Army far away from the Hukou city wall, Zhang Nengqi stood on a high command platform, watching the siege with a clairvoyant mirror, and when he saw this, he knew that the siege had failed, so he ordered a retreat, and then replaced a group of troops.

"Bang", the thief army under the city withdrew from the city wall like flowing water, leaving a place of corpses to withdraw to the formation, and before the Ming army in the city could take a breath, another group of thieves had been pressed.

The Ming army in the city was overwhelmed with a fierce attack, consumed the morale of the city's troops and ammunition, and exchanged human lives for the small city of Hukou, which was the siege strategy formulated by Zhang Nengqi.

Zhang Xianzhong gave the order to break the city for three days, and all Zhang Nengqi could do was to attack the city regardless of casualties.

"General, the city wall of the Ming army is too strange, there is a protruding horse face every fifty steps, and the brothers have to endure the flanking attacks on three sides of the city when attacking the city, especially the shots on the left and right sides cannot be defended or dodged at all, and they really can't climb up!"

The general soldier who was responsible for the siege returned to the command platform, pleaded guilty to Zhang Nengqi, and explained in detail the difficulty of the siege.

The corners of Zhang Nengqi's mouth twitched, and he waved his hand to go down to trim. He had already seen the strangeness of the Ming army's city walls, but so what? Even if he knows that it is strange, he is helpless, so he can only fill it with human lives.

If only he had dozens of red-clothed cannons, then he could use artillery to collapse the city wall of the Ming army, and he would not have to endure such a big sacrifice, Zhang Nengqi thought secretly.

......

"At the same time, the thieves launched an attack towards the mouth of the lake, and the attack was fierce, almost non-stop, but the brothers fought bravely and did not let the thieves attack the city wall."

In Jiujiang City, Chen Yue listened to the report of the enemy intelligence department and nodded. The remodeled city wall is similar to the structure of the western fortress, unless the city wall is forcibly destroyed by using cannons, and the city is broken by using human lives, Chen Yue wants to see how many lives the thief army can fill!

"There is news from Nanjing, Your Majesty's illness is serious again, and he is unconscious for half a day a day, and the dark tide is surging in the court, and some ministers have suggested that the vassal king be appointed as the heir." Liu Neng reported the news from Nanjing.

"Some people always want to die!" Chen Yue shook his head and sighed.