Li Dingguo sighed: "This prince, I don't know how many good things there are!" If this panacea oil can be produced in large quantities, it will definitely be able to sell at a good price. ”

Lin Bian replied: "Back to the prince, the current production of this golden oil is very small, and it can only be provided to our army, and there is no way to produce it in large quantities for the time being." However, after the tobacco and poppy harvests here, the prince will be able to make a lot of money. ”

"I don't know how that stuff works! But since it was proposed by Wang Gongzi, it must not be bad. Li Dingguo stroked his beard with satisfaction and nodded.

The main army walked for about ten days before arriving at the Nu River Gorge.

In these ten days, the Qing army filled in the corpses of auxiliary soldiers and Minzhuang, and finally broke through the second defensive line of the Ming army. After the 10-day siege battle, Wu Sangui's Minzhuang and auxiliary soldiers recruited by Hong Chengchou from Shaanxi, Henan, Lianghu and Guangxi had basically lost all of them, and the Qing army had to capture some civilians from nearby to serve as Minzhuang and auxiliaries. However, this place in Yunnan is really sparsely populated, and Wu Sangui sent troops everywhere to arrest people, but only captured more than 4,000 people, which is not enough to consume in a day's siege.

However, when attacking the stone castle behind, Wu Sangui discovered the mystery of this prismatic castle that protrudes at intervals on the city wall!

The third city wall of the Ming army is a regular stone city wall, because it is built on the mountainside, the position is high, the general cannon and the red-coated cannon of the Qing army are not so high in elevation, can not attack this stone city wall, the power of the tiger squat cannon is too small, the range is too close, not only can not bombard this kind of city wall, but also the tiger squat cannon has to enter the range of the hilltop trebuchet to be able to bombard the city wall.

Why don't you take this stone town and go straight to the avenue on the side of the mountain? Then when the Qing army passed, it would inevitably be bombarded by the tiger squat cannon in the stone castle, and it would also be attacked by trebuchets on the hill. Personnel passing through the avenue under artillery fire were bound to suffer heavy losses. Even if the soldiers can pass, the auxiliaries and baggage behind can't get through.

At this point, Wu Sangui had already retreated. I want to give up the idea of reclaiming the eternal calendar. But Ai Xing Ah didn't agree, and strictly ordered the Qing army to attack the city desperately.

The fortified stone city sits halfway up the mountainside, on top of the straight city wall, and every eighty steps or so, there is a prismatic fortress protruding from the top of the city wall, which just forms an angle of forty-five degrees with the city wall.

Each fortress is two zhang higher than the front city wall, that is, there are two floors, the fortress has two layers densely packed with shooting holes, and one fortress has four tiger squat cannons. Forty bird-bearers were also stationed. At the top of the fortress were battlements, behind which stood fifty archers.

The Qing army rushed to the foot of the stone city with rolling logs and stones, arrows and lead bullets in the sky, set up a ladder, and climbed up to the top of the city. A large number of Qing archers and bird gunners stood under the city, shooting at the city head with a dense barrage of feathered arrows and bullets.

Although the defenders at the head of the city can use the defending weapons such as rolling wood and stones, lime bottles, gold juice, and boiling oil to attack the attackers who climb the ladder, the defenders who show their heads to drop the weapons to defend the city will often be hit by the fire from the city. The biggest casualties in the defense of the city were when you attacked the castle and were killed by the weapons fired from below. Therefore, when the attacker began to ascend the city with a ladder, it was also the most tragic moment of the fierce battle between the two sides. It was the most difficult time for the defenders.

"Kill!" The Qing soldiers held shields to block the various siege weapons thrown on the city, brandished steel swords, and climbed the ladder.

The Qing soldiers under the city constantly shot with bows and arrows and birds. From time to time, the Ming army was shot by an arrow and fell into the battlements screaming, or an upside-down onion fell from the city.

"Rush forward! Kill all the thieves inside! Gao Dejie excitedly brandished his sword and commanded his soldiers to attack the city.

Suddenly. Rows of feathered arrows and projectiles were fired from the flanks of the Qing army. Holding shields high, blocking the Qing soldiers above could not block the fire coming from the flank, one after another armor-piercing heavy arrows, one by one projectiles with powerful kinetic energy, pierced the waist, leg side, side neck and shoulders of the Qing soldiers. The Qing soldiers who were shot by arrows let out a scream and fell down the ladder one after another.

"Side! The enemy inside these fortresses is the greatest threat to the siege forces! Watching his soldiers fall down the ladder one by one, Gao Dejie's face turned blue.

From time to time, the barrels of the guns of the birds stretched out from the shooting holes of the fortress, aimed at the ladder, and spit out fire.

After one of the birdmen fired, he immediately retreated to reload, and a reloaded birdman immediately stepped forward, stretched out the muzzle of the gun from the shooting hole, and opened fire on the city.

The Qing archers and bird-bearers turned their heads and fired at the fortress, but it was impossible to shoot the bow and arrow through the small shooting hole; The accuracy of the bird gun is even worse, and if you want to shoot a bullet through the shooting hole at a distance of forty or fifty paces, it is better to raise the muzzle of the gun and shoot at the moon.

At the top of the fortress, Ming archers shot condescendingly from behind the battlements. Although the bows and arrows of the Qing army can be shot above the fortress more than five zhang high, the kinetic energy has been reduced a lot when the arrows are shot so high, and the opponent is protected by a female wall, and the archers are wearing strong iron armor, and the arrows shot from under the city cannot cause much damage to the archers above the fortress.

Boom burst into the firing hole of the "boom" fortress, and the shotgun fired by the Tiger Squat Cannon penetrated into the crowd of Qing troops.

The shotgun fired at close range formed a fan-shaped killing surface and burrowed into the crowd, and immediately blood splashed everywhere, screaming miserably, and the dense projectiles knocked down a lot of Qing archers and bird gunners at once. In the blink of an eye, the suppressed firepower under the city suddenly weakened.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, the defenders at the front of the city continued to poke their heads out from behind the battlements, aimed at the ladder and threw the stones down, slapped the wolf's teeth down, threw the lime bottles down, and poured hot gold juice and boiling oil under the city.

The ladders broke one after another, and the Qing troops who were ascending the city let out screams and fell down from above.

The Qing soldiers in the back went up, and there were ladders on the city wall, and groups of Qing soldiers held their shields high on the ladders, and they were knocked down from the ladders, and then the ladders were broken one after another.

Tens of thousands of enemies fell from the walls and fell to the ground, setting fire in flames. Countless thistles flew out of the 10,000 enemies that exploded, and swept away a large area of Qing soldiers at once. Most of the Qing soldiers who were injured by the explosion of 10,000 enemies were wounded in the legs, although they could not die for a while, but the rust got into their bodies, and these Qing soldiers were waiting to die after being rescued.

Some of the Qing soldiers finally had a psychological breakdown, turned around and ran.

Not only the sword and shield men who climbed the ladder to attack the city were joined by the fleeing bands, but also some archers and bird gunners who were tasked with suppressing them.

"Kill!" Gao Dejie's Overseer stepped forward brandishing steel knives, the swords flashed, and the Qing soldiers who tried to escape from the city were all beheaded by the Overseer.

In the end, even Gao Dejie himself drew his sword to kill people, and he alone killed more than 30 deserters in a row, until the sword was curled and his arms were weak.

The Qing soldiers who did not die no longer dared to retreat, so they could only bite the bullet and pray that the rolling wooden stones, bows and arrows and projectiles would not fall on them. When he finally escaped the call of death and began to climb up the ladder, he was hit by various weapons and fell down the ladder screaming.

A group of Qing soldiers rushed up and fell under the fortress, and another group of Qing soldiers rushed up and fell again under the fire of the fortress.

After attacking for an unknown amount of time, Gao Dejie finally heard the long-awaited sound of gold, and the Qing soldiers who were desperately attacking the city breathed a sigh of relief, withdrew from under the fortress covered by crossfire, and returned to their camp.

In this battle, Gao Dejie suffered heavy losses, leaving more than 1,300 Qing soldiers under the city. At this time, the Minzhuang and auxiliary soldiers in the Wu army had already died, and the more than 4,000 Minzhuang captured by Wu Sangui from nearby were all lost under the city, and the green battalion soldiers also lost thousands of people. Now it is the elite soldiers of the Pingxi Royal Mansion who have thrown themselves in, and they have lost more than 1,000 people.

At the foot of Stone City, the corpses that were all horizontal and vertical were all real Pingxi Wangfu Army, these soldiers followed the elite veterans of Pingxi Wang's southern and northern wars, but they didn't even climb the city, so they were all lost under the city.

Gao Dejie, who was covered in blood, returned to the camp, he raised his head and saw Wu Sangui sitting in the middle, and saw Ai Xing sitting next to Wu Sangui, he quickly took off his helmet and knelt on the ground: "Handsome!" General Pingxi, the last general is a capital crime! ”

Wu Sangui turned his head and glanced at Ai Xing next to him, not daring to speak.

On the contrary, Ai Xing Ah glanced at Gao Dejie expressionlessly, and after a long time, he squeezed out a few words from his mouth: "Get up, it's not your fault!" General Gao also tried his best! ”

"Thank you, General Pingxi, for your kindness!"

"Okay, you go down first, General Ben still has to discuss with the prince!" Ai Xing Ah Leng said coldly.

When Gao Dejie withdrew from the Chinese army's big tent, Aixing Ah turned his head and asked Wu Sangui: "I don't know what the prince of Pingxi thinks of this thief's strange city?" ”

Wu Sangui replied: "At first, the king didn't know how strange things could bulge on the thieves' city walls, and I thought it was just a kind of fort. But in today's battle, I realized that this kind of raised fort attached to the city wall is an extremely vicious design! When our army attacks the city walls, it will be attacked from three sides, both frontally and on both sides! It's really vicious! ”

Ai Xing nodded: "That's true!" Attack from three sides, no matter how strong a warrior is, he can't resist it! This kind of fort is indeed vicious! And only the most vicious people can come up with such a thing! ”

"General Pingxi!" Wu Sangui arched his hand and said, "This kind of city is extremely difficult to break, even if the brothers drain their blood, I'm afraid they won't be able to take it!" According to the king's eyes, we might as well withdraw our troops from the Nujiang Gorge and then take the Mengxi belt into Burma. ”

Ai Xing Ah shook his head and said: "From here to Mengxi, there is no way out, only to go back to Kunming first, and then go south along the river, this detour will take at least more than two months!" And if the thieves find out about our intentions and build another city like this in the Mengxi area, how can we get by? And there are many long nights and dreams, I'm afraid that after a long time, Myanmar may change hexagrams! If you escape the puppet emperor, the court will blame you, I'm afraid you and I can't afford to bear this responsibility! (To be continued.) )