In the face of the sudden rush of the cavalry of the Pingnan Army, the city of Nanjing was in chaos, they had not heard the drums of war for more than 200 years, although they knew that the cavalry of the Pingnan Army could not rush to the head of the city under their feet, but many people were still trembling, nervous and speechless.

Twelve hundred cavalry, divided into several groups, galloped to and fro outside the city of Nanjing, kicking up a large cloud of smoke, shouting and mocking the defenders of the city just a stone's throw away from the city wall. Although he knew that the number of cavalry on the other side was not too much, the generals of the defending army were all pale, and they did not dare to attack the city at all.

After a while, thousands of infantry drove up, divided into several lines, and pressed towards the gates. The galloping cavalry stopped, closely monitoring the direction of the city gate, guarding against a possible attack by the defenders of the city.

"It's so rampant, it's so rampant!" At the head of the Qilin Gate, Yin Ruan Dacheng of Ying Tianfu had a blue face and muttered to himself.

The total number of enemy troops outside the city is just over 10,000, but it is divided into four roads, and at the same time to attack Guanyin Gate, Yaofang Gate, Xianhe Gate and Qilin Gate, which simply does not take the defenders of the city in their eyes!

And the army attacking outside the city, there are not even many siege equipment, there are not a few ladders to climb the city, although the outer outline of the city wall is not high and not strong, most of them are even made of rammed earth, only the city gate tower is wrapped with city bricks, but even so, it is a strong city as high as three zhang, how do they plan to get in, is it a stack of human head ants attached to it?

Looking at the situation of the enemy army outside the city, Ruan Dacheng could see the weaknesses of the other party at a glance even if he didn't know how to lead troops to fight. If you can send an elite army out of the city to attack at this time, attacking the enemy because of the unstable foothold, maybe you can really catch them off guard, and even defeat them directly.

"Marquis Liu, if you personally take the elite soldiers out of the city to attack, are you sure that you will repel them and boost their morale?" Ruan Dacheng asked a military general wearing bright silver armor beside him, this person turned out to be Liu Zeqing, the Marquis of Dongping.

"It's hard to fight." Liu Zeqing smacked his lips and sighed: "If the other party is just infantry, it's okay to say, it's not difficult to defeat them, but they have cavalry, you see those thousands of elite horsemen, waiting for us to attack." ”

“......”

Ruan Dacheng was silent, Liu Zeqing had nearly 20,000 elite soldiers, and the enemy army attacking Qilin Gate was only three or four thousand, he didn't dare to do this, what a waste it should be!

As if he had guessed what Ruan Dacheng was thinking, Liu Zeqing showed an embarrassed look on his face, "Lord Ruan, you don't know, what is outside this city is Chen Yue's army, which can resist and win against the Manchurian Eight Banners, and its strength should not be underestimated." ”

Recalling that when he was in Tongzhou last year, when he heard that Chen Yue led his troops to defeat Dolgon's Eight Banners cavalry in Panshan, the shocked faces of the entire Tongzhou battalion from the supervisor Zhou Yanru to all the generals, Liu Zeqing once again firmly determined that he could not directly oppose it.

"Besides, we have already arranged a strategy, and if we make hasty adjustments, it will not be good for war."

No matter how powerful the army is, as long as it falls into the trap, there is nothing to be done, thinking of this, Liu Zeqing showed a sneer on his face.

Ruan Dacheng nodded, he was also just a sudden whim, being able to lead the enemy army to the trap and annihilate it, of course, it was better than a hard fight.

Seeing that the enemy army was forming a queue more than a mile away from the city wall, more than a dozen artillery pieces were pushed to the front of the line.

"Where's our artillery? Bombard them! Ruan Dacheng hurriedly ordered.

Hearing Ruan Dacheng's question, the Qilin Gate guard Zhang Guerrilla suddenly showed a wry smile on his face.

"Lord Hui, there were originally three cannons in the Qilin Gate, but they have not been used for a long time, and the gun chamber is seriously rusted, I have asked people to clean and repair it, but it can't be repaired for a while......"

"....." Ruan Dacheng glared at him vigorously, so angry that he didn't know what to say.

In fact, this can't be blamed on Zhang's guerrillas, mainly because Nanjing City has not fought for too long, although there are hundreds of artillery pieces in the entire Nanjing City, but most of them are actually artillery cast during the Hongwu period, that is, during the Rebellion of the Japanese Invaders, a team of Japanese Invaders killed under the city of Nanjing, and only then did they fight and rebuild a batch. But decades have passed, and it has never been maintained, so where can this artillery still be used?

"Bang", "bang", "bang", as he spoke, he heard a continuous cannon sound, and one after another shells crossed the sky and smashed over. Some of the shells smashed outside the moat, some flew over the walls of the city and flew into the city, and a few hit the outer walls, and the people felt a violent shock.

Originally, the Pingnan army only had 100 tiger squat cannons and a small number of small cannons, which were not good for battle battles, but they were not enough for siege. For example, the tiger squat cannon, even if it hits the city wall, it will only tickle the city wall.

Attacking the city with artillery, of course, is for the purpose of destroying the city wall, and thousands of catties of Hongyi artillery is the first choice. However, the Pingnan Army does not have Hongyi cannons, but Zhenjiang has!

Zhenjiang is also known as Jingkou, located at the confluence of the Yangtze River and the Grand Canal, the geographical location is too important, in order to prevent the attack of the Japanese invaders, in addition to setting up a guard in Zhenjiang, there are also forts along the river, there are dozens of artillery of all kinds on the fort, when the troops are dispatched from Zhenjiang, Chen Yue pulled the artillery that can be used in one go.

The first round of shelling was only a test firing, but after the second round, the accuracy was much higher, and one shell after another fell on the city, and the piles of dishes were in tatters, bricks and stones flew wildly, the city walls were shaking violently, and large pieces of rammed earth fell down in a hurry.

Since the city wall is bombarded, it is natural to choose the rammed earth city wall without bricks to bombard.

Attacked by the artillery under the city, the defenders at the head of the city were in chaos, although most of the shells were only used to bombard the city wall, and only a few shells fell on the city, but the defenders at the head of the city still screamed bitterly, hiding in the chaos in Tibet.

Zhang guerrilla shouted repeatedly, and his own soldiers rushed into the crowd with whips in their hands to suppress the riot. Most of the people in the city, whether they were the original guards or the newly recruited villagers, had never experienced a battle, and they were not afraid of the indiscriminate artillery bombardment!

After several rounds of continuous bombardment, the city did not fight back, Chen Yue was surprised at the same time, and his courage also increased. The order was given, and the infantry array began to approach the city.

It would take at least two days to rely on artillery to collapse the city wall, and Chen Yue didn't want to wait so long. Father Chen Jianghe has already persuaded the Qilin Gate guards to surrender, as long as he puts more pressure on him, this city gate will be opened soon.

More than 4,000 infantry slowly pressed towards the Qilin Gate, and at the forefront was a long-range attack force composed of more than 1,000 firecrackers and crossbowmen.

Thirty paces away from the city wall, the soldiers stopped, and the musketeers raised their guns and pointed them directly at the head of the city, and the crossbow archers also raised their strong crossbows, which had already been loaded with arrows, and with the sound of bangs, the guns and crossbows were released in unison, and the arrows and spears went to the city like a curtain of rain.