The Ming army attacked for an afternoon, fought fiercely until dark, threw more than 3,000 sandbags into the moat, killed less than 200 auxiliaries and 71 soldiers, seriously wounded more than 100 auxiliaries and 33 soldiers, and slightly wounded countless others.

Yang Sheng stood at the head of the city, watching the Ming army retreat with a blank face. Although the Qing army defending the city also suffered a lot of losses, it was much smaller than the Ming army, with less than 187 killed and 56 seriously wounded, and most of the losses were temporarily organized young and strong, as well as some auxiliaries, and only 31 people were lost by the green battalion armor soldiers. Although tomorrow the opponent attacks again, the moat will be filled, but the real bloody battle will begin after the moat is filled. After the Ming army crossed the moat, they had to clear the wooden stakes, deer barricades and other obstacles under the city before they could push the large ladder cart up. When the Ming army cleared the obstacles under the city, the rolling wood and stones, gold juice, fire oil, and 10,000 enemies at the head of the city would be smashed down, killing and injuring a large number of Ming troops. If the obstacles are not cleared, then the city can only be attacked with simple ladders, and the losses of the Ming army will be even greater. Even if the Ming army cleared the obstacles and pushed the large ladder cart with a shield, grappling hook and winch wheel up, the Qing army at the head of the city could still smash the Ming army climbing the ladder with wolf teeth, pour the ladder with fire oil, and then burn it with rockets. Anyway, if the Ming army wants to climb to the top of the city, it will have to pay a heavy price. Even if a few people go to the city, the Qing soldiers in the city can use superior forces to drive down the Ming army.

"Haikou wants to attack Cloud City? As far as they are concerned, they don't even want to take it! Cai Zhong sneered.

After nightfall, the Ming army did not seem to stop moving. The Qing army at the head of the city found that camps had been set up around those small mounds to cover the mounds tightly, and the Ming army had also lit bonfires, which seemed to be busy at night.

Xu Shichang said angrily: "Haikou is too rampant! Shall we pull the red-coated cannons from the towers of the city and bombard those mounds? ”

Yang Sheng said: "My lord, don't! The redcoat cannon was inconvenient to carry, and it was not very effective against the bombardment of the mound. The thieves also built a platform behind the mound with cannons on it. If our red-coated cannons are transferred to hit the mound, they will be knocked out by their cannons. If we lose the red-coated cannons and the thieves attack from the city gates, we are in danger. ”

Zhou Lianggong sneered and said: "The thieves just want to mobilize us, they want to see us show our flaws!" If we mess with ourselves, thieves have a chance. As long as we brake quietly, don't be moved by the thieves' tricks, and let the thieves play any tricks, we don't even want to capture the fortified city! ”

Behind the mound, the Ming army dug tunnels overnight. The auxiliaries pushed the trolley into the tunnel, and the excavated soil was sent out by the trolley, transported to the tunnel entrance, and then pulled up by a winch, and the excavated soil was used to raise and thicken the mound. The tunnel is high inside and low outside, and the groundwater seeping out of the tunnel flows into the trench at the mouth of the tunnel and is pumped away by an Archimedes-type screw pump.

As soon as it was dawn the next day, the Ming army could not wait to attack.

This time, the attack of the Ming army was even more ferocious, in addition to the shield car that appeared yesterday, even the chariot and the nest car also came!

It is obvious that these siege weapons were all made by Ming army craftsmen and auxiliaries overnight.

The so-called cart is a kind of shape that looks like a pointed wooden donkey, and like an upside-down pointed boat, with six wheels, the bottom of the cart is empty, and the soldiers can push the cart in the car, the pointed top and pointed head can reduce the attack effect of the city defense weapon on the cart, and the outside of the car is covered with soaked felt and cowhide, and it can stop rocket attacks. The walls of the cart are extremely thick, which can not only block bows and arrows and birds, but also rolling wood and stones.

The nest car is a kind of mobile watchtower, and the vertical pole made of towering trees is as high as six feet! Taller than the height of the Sky Wall. At the top of the pole is a square five feet long and wide, with archers on it, who can attack the city from a high position.

The emergence of these two new siege tools reduced the losses of the Ming army's auxiliaries a lot, and the Ming army hiding in the cart could calmly drop the sandbags and push the cart back. And the tall nest car, there are the Ming army's archers on it, there are a total of eight such nest cars, Wang Xinyu divided his own soldiers into two groups to take turns on the nest car, a group of forty people, can take turns to shoot arrows to the city. The nest car was outside the range of the Qing army's archers and bird guns, but the archers on the nest car were almost without missing arrows, and each arrow took a human life.

Yang Sheng scoffed at the fierce attack of the Ming army: "The more fierce the thieves attack, the more anxious they are!" No matter what siege weapons they use, they still have to clear the obstacles under our city when they cross the river in the end! When the thieves get to the city, we can give them the maximum damage! ”

Even if a cart was to knock down the city walls, they would be doused with the fire oil that fell from the castle and then burned with rockets.

As for the threat of the nest car to the head of the city, the Qing army is not afraid, after all, there are not many archers on the nest car, as long as the Qing army withstands the casualties and uses the defense equipment to strike at the Ming army under the city, then the Ming army killed will definitely be much more than the Qing army that the nest car can kill.

The two sides fought fiercely for a morning, and the losses of the Ming army were obviously much smaller, while the losses of the Qing army were double that of yesterday.

However, Yang Sheng was not worried at all, the Qing troops lost were all temporarily recruited people, and the elite armor-clad Qing troops of the green battalion suffered almost no losses.

But what happened next was incomprehensible to the Qing army: in the afternoon, after the Ming army had filled in the three sections of the moat, it did not attack again, except for the archers on the pitiful nest cart from time to time to shoot one or two cold arrows, whether it was a shield cart or a chariot, whether it was a sword and shield hand or an archer or a bird gunner, it did not come up again. Behind the three mounds, the Ming army seems to be still digging tunnels, and the mounds are getting thicker and thicker, as if they are going to pile up a mountain of dirt.

"Could it be that Haikou really wants to attack? Do they have that time? Zhou Lianggong, who has always been cautious and bold, felt very confused.

The Qing generals in the city unanimously felt that there was no such possibility at all, and it would take at least ten days and a half months to attack.

Cai Zhong stood on the eastern city wall, looking at the Zhangjiang River in the distance. To the east of Cloud City, no Ming army launched an attack. But on the river, there are Ming army sailors cruising.

To the east is the road to Zhangzhou, where it is clear that the Ming army has blocked the Zhangjiang River with naval divisions. If the Qing army in the city is defeated and wants to flee to Zhangzhou, it will be attacked by the Ming army when crossing the river, and I am afraid that most of the people will drown in the river.

Directly to the west, is the official road to Guangdong, the Ming army did not launch an attack in the west, and it seems that the Ming army did not see the Ming army in the west.

However, Yang Sheng found that on the official road in the west in the distance, startled birds flew out from time to time in the grass on the side of the road.

Looking at the camp of the Ming army that attacked head-on, it seems that several large ladders have been built.

Xu Shichang was puzzled: "Since the thieves have already built the ladder and filled the moat, why don't they attack?" ”

"It turned out that the Haikou left us a way, just waiting for us to die! They deliberately pretended to attack the cave and dug tunnels outside the city. When we went out of the city to attack, we were ambushed by them! They'll take the opportunity to push the ladder over and take our city! We had no choice but to run west, and they laid an ambush on the official road to the west! Yang Sheng sneered, "But I just don't want to fall for them!" ”

Yang Sheng's analysis made sense to everyone.

"Lord Yang is really smart!" Zhou Lianggong also felt that Yang Sheng's words were reasonable, "The thief's trick is indeed too vicious!" It turned out to be a serial scheme! You want to catch me all! ”

Cai Zhong snorted: "There are no more than 10,000 thieves, and the claim of 50,000 is to trick us into going out of the city for a decisive battle!" If Yunxiao is lost, and the Governor and the Governor have to send troops to rescue, then Zheng Rebellion's main force will take the opportunity to attack Zhangzhou! Admiral Huang had no choice but to send Quanzhou soldiers to rescue, and Zheng Cheng and Zheng Taibu would take the opportunity to go ashore again! As long as we lose here, the whole of Fujian will be in chaos! This is a hair that moves the whole body! We must do what the Governor said, and hold on! ”

Everyone in the city didn't expect Guangdong to send troops to rescue him, Wu Liuqi only cared about himself, so he wouldn't care about the life or death of the Fujian Green Battalion. Yang Sheng and they wanted to break the siege, but they could only wait for Zheng Chenggong to withdraw his troops, and Li Shutai personally led his troops to relieve the siege.

Zhou Lianggong nodded: "Not bad!" The elite soldiers of the Haikou are indeed very powerful! In the field battles outside the city, even the Eight Banners have suffered many losses, don't talk about us. What Zheng Wei is best at is to use the sailors to mobilize our troops, disperse and annihilate them! ”

Xu Shichang was a little displeased: "Yuan Liang! You are growing up with other people's ambition to destroy your own prestige! ”

Yang Sheng sneered: "Lord Xu! Do you know that Lord Zhou once personally went to the city to fire cannons and killed a large number of pirates? In the first battle of Zhangzhou, Zheng Shun led the water to flood the city, and 700,000 soldiers and civilians were killed. ”

Xu Shichang groaned and nodded: "This official knows that Lord Zhou is the talent of my pillar of the Qing Dynasty!" ”

"I don't know what the strength of this Haikou is, do you want to send someone to test it at night?" Zhou Lianggong asked.

Yang Sheng exclaimed: "Absolutely not! These pirates are well-equipped, and if they send people to steal the camp, they will probably be sent to death in vain! ”

For a whole night, the Ming army was still digging tunnels. The next day, throughout the day, the Ming army did not launch any attack, as if they were hiding in the camp to build siege equipment.

During this period, there were Qing army spies operating outside the city who tried to use the night to sneak attack the Ming army sailors and set fire to the boats, but the Ming army sailors were extremely vigilant, and the Qing army spies were just approaching, they were discovered by the secret sentinels, and then they were shot into hedgehogs by random arrows.

At this time, Guo Yi and Cai Lu, who were not optimistic about this siege operation, also felt that they could break the city just around the corner, and they boldly handed over the 1,000 armored soldiers sent to help in the battle to Wang Xinyu's command.

After deducting the soldiers who have been killed and seriously injured in the past few days, Chen Python still has 1,300 soldiers in his hands, and Wang Xinyu also has 1,400 sailors in his hands. Together with the 1,000 people of Guo Yi and Cai Lu, there were 3,700 more Ming troops that could be used to attack.

After dark, the tunnel was about to be dug under the city, and Wang Xinyu began to arrange an attack plan.

In fact, Wang Xinyu dug six tunnels, but the Qing army could only see three mounds. Three of the tunnels lead under the walls through a moat that has already been filled; There are also three tunnels that pass under the unfilled moat and enter the city walls. Behind the three mounds were three trenches, each with two tunnel entrances dug into it.

Two thousand three hundred soldiers, divided into six teams, all dressed in heavy armor, sword and shield men in front, followed by swordsmen and pikemen, archers and bird swordsmen, after breaking through the gap, rushed in all directions, and assumed the main task. 1,400 sailors, of which 1,000 were selected to cooperate in the siege of the city, these sailors each carried two national surname bottles, followed the soldiers into the city, and immediately after entering the city, they relied on their personal bravery, seized various buildings, and with the advantage of their good climbing, climbed onto the roof, threw the national surname bottle into the crowd of Qing troops, and then shot the Qing soldiers with bows and arrows, and cooperated with the soldiers to assist. The remaining 500 officers and soldiers of the Naval Division, together with 3,000 auxiliaries, stayed in the camp to prevent the Qing army from counterattacking.

At this time, the Qing troops in the city did not realize that they were in a catastrophe at all, except for the Qing soldiers who stayed in the city to guard, most of the Qing soldiers were immersed in sleep.