When the dust settled, Deng Shan, who had run out of two miles away, looked back, and immediately patted his lieutenant with joy, and laughed: "It's not in vain that I risked my life to come here!" See? Lao Tzu really blew up the city of Nanjing! ”

His soldiers also cheered excitedly, "Hey! The city of Nanjing is broken! ”

"What kind of cotton is this powerful, the battlements just now are bombarded in the sky!"

"No, the shock made my ears deaf......"

"It's such a big collapse, enough for three horses to go in side by side! Look how the thief is still cowering inside. ”

Not far from them, Zhu Linmiao, who was in command at the front line, was also staring at the location where the explosives were planted, and when he saw the black gap in the middle of the city wall under the moonlight, his heart was also suddenly relieved.

You must know that the nature of nitrocellulose is very unstable, so although its power is amazing, it is rarely used as military explosives directly in later generations.

Tonight's operation was also extremely risky, and if a cannonball hit the iron drum carrying the explosives, no, even if it landed only within three feet of it, a huge shock might have detonated the nitrocellulose.

Fortunately, everything is thrilling, and Deng Shan succeeded!

Zhu Linmiao immediately turned his head to the herald and said, "Herald, start the general attack!" ”

Immediately, a low horn sounded in all directions. First, nearly 40 cannons, which had been hidden in the night, concentrated their fire on the gap that had just been blown up, in order to suppress the captives who might go to the defense.

Then the infantry of the 3,000 Dragon Guards formed a column of twenty rows, shouting "kill-" and quickly rushed towards the breach in the east of the city.

Huang Ding, who was in charge of the Qing army's command of the defense in the east of the city, had already been wiped out in the violent explosion just now. The soldiers at the head of the city were even more frightened by the terrifying momentum of nitrocellulose and retreated, and more than ten rounds of shells followed, and no one dared to step forward to defend at this time.

As a result, the forward of the Dragon Guard managed to control the breach on the eastern side of the city with almost no resistance, and then climbed the city wall from the inner side of the city to build a defensive line.

Immediately after them, led by hussars, nearly a brigade of the Wanming Army poured into the city of Nanjing, and even the thirty Franc machine guns were stationed in the city.

However, the main attacking troops of the Ming army, which had been waiting for a fierce street battle with Jianyu, were a little stunned - they aimed at guns and artillery for a long time, but they did not find a target that could be hit.

It is all the "credit" of Hong Chengchou's plan to delay the surrender of the army in a month. Zhu Linmiao is not as gentlemanly as Zheng Chenggong in history, he ordered the Jinyi guards lurking in Nanjing early in the morning to spread the news of Hong Chengchou's begging surrender, which made the Qing soldiers panic and demoralize.

At this time, Huang Ding died, and the soldiers in the east of the city saw the Ming army rushing into the city, all shouting "the city is broken" and "the Ming army has come in", and rushed to several other city gates.

When the Qing soldiers elsewhere heard an earth-shattering noise in the east, and saw the "rout" of the brigade coming, they were even more convinced that the city of Nanjing was no longer safe, so they threw their blades and ran with them. As a result, the fleeing team grew larger and larger, and within an hour it swept through the whole of Nanjing.

Yang Chengzu took his henchmen to personally draw his sword and went into battle, killing three or four hundred deserters in a row, which was able to stabilize the situation.

He summoned an officer who had come from the east of the city and asked, "What is the situation in the east of the city?" What about you Mr. Huang? ”

"Yu, General," the officer stammered, "the east of the city was blown up dozens of zhang, and tens of thousands of Ming troops swarmed in, firing artillery in all directions...... Huang and Huang have been killed......"

Yang Chengzu only felt a buzz in his head, and turned his head to look at the four or five thousand soldiers who had finally gathered beside him, all of them looked terrified, and he immediately had a judgment in his heart - going to the east of the city to reinforce must be sent to death!

He looked at the city again, and saw that the torches were extended, and he didn't know how many Ming troops there were, and a large number of earthen fortresses and arrow towers were eyeing and blocking the door.

With the lesson of Yang Zhihe's death last time when he was blocked by the earth ramparts, at this time, it was Zhu Linmiao who personally told him that these fortifications outside the city were fake, and he would definitely not dare to believe it. In fact, the fortifications outside the city and next to the artillery camp position are real guys, and recently, the engineer battalion of the Dragon Guard Army has been busy rushing to the siege equipment, and there is no time to build these things.

Yang Chengzu hesitated for a moment, pointed to a subordinate general and said, "You take eight hundred people to continue to hold on." Then he beckoned to the rest, "The others will follow me to the west of the city and join the headquarters of the Lord Guan!" ”

Hu Maozhen was in the same situation, and under the drinking of the earthen fortresses and arrow towers outside the city, he led his troops to the west of the city.

When the two arrived in the west of the city almost at the same time, they were overjoyed - this should not be the main direction of attack of the Ming army, there were only a few torches outside the city, and the earthen fortress was only more than 20 zhang wide, so it should be easy to bypass.

Guan Allegiance is the farthest away from the east of the city, and the number of deserters in the department is also the least, and the lineup is quite neat. The three of them gathered the men and horses together, barely scraped together an army of 20,000, and on the one hand, they asked people to pick up Hong Chengchou, and at the same time opened the west gate, rushing out.

……

Hong Chengchou received the soldiers twice tonight to inform the military information, the first time was tens of thousands of Ming troops besieging the city on all sides, and soon after hearing a loud noise, someone came to report that the east of the city had been broken and exploded, and the Ming army swarmed in.

At the beginning, he was extremely calm, there were still 50,000 horses in the city, even if the city was broken, as long as the troops were gathered to defend it, it should not be difficult to defend.

But then dozens of horsemen arrived to cover his retreat to the west of the city.

Hong Chengchou was immediately shocked, grabbed the visitor and asked: "Why did the army retreat to the west when the army did not go to the east of the city to defend against the enemy?" ”

The officer hurriedly said: "Lord Dutang, the Ming army is fierce, and it can't be stopped at all!"

"Before Huang Zongbing died in battle, Yang Zongbing and others also lost their troops, and now there are only 20,000 remnants left, and if they don't retreat, they are afraid that they will be blocked in the city......" He didn't dare to say that Huang Ding was killed, and most of the main force of the Qing army collapsed on its own.

Hong Chengchou frowned, and suddenly remembered a question, "You said that Yang Chengzu, Guan Xiaozhong, and Hu Maozhen's subordinates are all gathered in the West Gate?" Why don't they break out nearby? ”

"Lord Hui, there are large groups of enemy troops in the north, southeast, and southeast directions, and a lot of earthen fortresses and arrow towers have been built, and only the western side of the offensive is the weakest......"

Hong Chengchou was stunned when he heard this, then closed his eyes tightly and sat down on the chair, "That's it." You can go and leave me alone. ”

"My lord, the Ming army has not yet attacked, General Yang is planning, we will go to Jianyang as soon as possible to continue to hold on, we should ......"

"What are you keeping?" Hong Chengchou waved his hand dejectedly, "You generals, you have fought all your life, can't you see such an obvious circumference?!" ”

Before he finished speaking, a confidant ran into the house in stride, and said in a panic: "Lord Dutang, the Southern Army has passed Daqing Street, please make a quick decision!" ”

Hong Chengchou only stayed there and didn't say a word for a long time. In a moment, he heard a loud bang in the distance, and the general stomped his feet, turned and went out, shouting, "Close the door, go up the wall!" Stick to the Yamen of the Political Envoy Division! ”