As the siege progressed, the mound of earth raised by the auxiliaries gradually approached the moat. After more than 20 days of siege battles www.biquge.info the mound finally advanced to the edge of the moat.

The besieging loyal battalion was closer to the city wall, and the artillery fire of the Qing army at the head of the city became more accurate and powerful. The artillery shells of the Qing army continued to hit the shield car, and at a distance of 70 steps, even the medium artillery such as the general cannon and the Franc machine could smash the guard plate of the shield car with one shot, not to mention the Hongyi cannon, and even the small cannons such as the tiger squat cannon and the small general cannon could cause casualties among the auxiliaries behind the shield car.

The shield carts in front were destroyed, and more shield carts pushed forward.

As the distance approached, the archers, flintlock musketeers, and bird gunners of the Qing army could exert their might, and feathered arrows and bullets were constantly fired from the city, and from time to time the auxiliary soldiers of the loyal battalion were shot and fell. But when one of the auxiliaries fell, the auxiliaries behind came up. The Qing army also loaded shotguns with tiger squat cannons, seized the opportunity of the Ming army auxiliaries to leave the shield car and prepare to drop sandbags to open artillery bombardment, rows of shotguns shot out of the muzzles, and a large number of auxiliary soldiers sprayed blood mist wildly, screaming and falling into the moat.

Although the Ming army also suppressed the city head with artillery fire, and the falling flowering shells killed many Qing soldiers defending the city, the accuracy of howitzers and mortars was not high, and they could not accurately destroy the Qing army's artillery, but only caused a certain killing effect to the Qing army at the head of the city.

Cannonballs, arrows, bullets flying. The casualties screamed. The shield carts shuttling back and forth threw down one sandbag after another, pushing forward, filling the moat little by little.

As the distance approached, the various weapons of the Qing army at the head of the city also exerted their power. The Qing soldiers at the head of the city dropped the lime bottles. The overwhelming lime bottle fell in the crowd, and the quicklime in the lime bottle reacted with the water to generate heat, and the lime bottle burst immediately when it hit the ground, and the hot lime water splashed, scalding many auxiliary soldiers. At the head of the city, the Qing soldiers kept throwing ropes with claw hooks. The claw hook was hung on the wooden board of the shield car, and as soon as the Qing soldiers at the head of the city pulled the claw hook, the shield car baffle was opened, and the auxiliary soldiers behind were exposed to the muzzles and arrows of the Qing army.

Muskets roared, arrows rained down, and a large number of auxiliaries screamed and fell into the moat.

Because of the proximity, the bastions on the city walls also played a role. The bastion continued to shoot feathered arrows and bullets from both wings, attacking the unprotected wings of the shield cart from the side, and the bullets and feathered arrows pierced into the crowd of auxiliaries, and immediately blood splashed everywhere, screaming again and again, and countless auxiliaries were shot and arrowed.

The Ming army was also desperate, and the archers of the loyal battalion kept pressing up, shooting arrows at the city with feather arrows, and the firecrackers stepped forward and shot dense bullets. Feather arrows and bullets were shot at the top of the city, the female wall and battlements of the Qing army had been beaten to pieces in the shelling for a month, the head of the city was almost bare, only a few female wall cars were protecting, and a large number of Qing soldiers were hit by the random arrows and projectiles fired from the city.

However, the two fortresses caused great losses to the archers and musketeers of the loyal battalion, and the Qing soldiers hid in the fortresses and fired bullets from the shooting holes, causing the Ming army to fly flesh and blood.

The stragglers and sharpshooters of the Qiongzhou army were dispatched, and twenty rifled guns equipped with aiming and more than a hundred ordinary rifled guns concentrated their firepower and fired continuously at the fortress. The high accuracy of the rifled guns, combined with the concentration of more than a hundred guns for concentrated fire on the two bastions, made it quite possible for a bullet to penetrate through the firing hole. The guns roared, white smoke filled the air, rifled guns spewed fire, bullets hit the outer wall of the fortress, sparks flew everywhere, and occasionally one or two bullets drilled through the shooting hole, and there was an immediate scream from inside.

Because smokeless gunpowder has not yet been used, the Qiongzhou army is still using black fire, when the gun is fired, the white smoke is filled, the smoke is very large, each rifled gunner shoots two or three shots, and has to change the position, so as not to block the field of vision of the gunsmoke. In order to blow away the white smoke that obscured the rifled gunner's field of vision, there was also a group of auxiliaries holding extra-large fans in both hands, constantly fanning the wind to fan the white smoke that covered the sky and the sun in front of the rifled gunner.

The fierce offensive and defensive battle continued, and for another three days and three nights, the loyal battalion had advanced to a distance of only ten steps from the city wall, and at this distance, the siege battle became extremely fierce.

The wolf's tooth slap, the yaksha beat, and the fierce fire oil tank on the head of the city can already play a role, and even the fire oil tank thrown condescendingly can be thrown more than ten steps away.

When the advancing shield carts approached the foot of the city wall, the last bit of moat had not yet been filled, but in this short period of more than ten steps, it was the moment when the auxiliary soldiers suffered the heaviest casualties. The huge wolf tooth slapped down from the wall and slammed into the advancing shield cart, shattering it in one fell swoop. Flames erupted from the fire tank, and dozens of auxiliaries burst into flames, letting out heart-rending screams.

Between the rolling wood and stones, mixed with the dropped canisters of fire oil and the rockets fired, one after another the shield carts were ignited, and the city was lit with raging fires, and the auxiliaries who tried to escape from the fire shield carts were hit into a hornet's nest by the random arrows and projectiles fired from the city.

This last bit of distance is the most cruel moment for the attacker, the attacker has not been able to enter the city, but the various defending weapons at the head of the city can be smashed down, causing great losses to the attacker under the city.

Although Li Laiheng adopted the method of advancing at the same time, while the loyal battalion launched the main attack in the south, Hao Shaoqi also led a team of men and horses to attack from the west. The attack from the west did not use a large number of shield carts to fill in the obstacles outside the city, but let the auxiliaries directly chop the wooden stakes and deer barricades to open the way for the soldiers. As a result, Wang Jinbao was not incompetent, and the loyal battalion launched a siege battle from the west, and Wang Jinbao immediately dispatched part of his troops to the west city wall to defend.

The Qing troops at the head of the city shot indiscriminate arrows and projectiles, and the loyal battalion that was chopping wooden stakes and deer barbs suffered heavy casualties.

Hao Shaoqi suffered a loss under the city and was forced to retreat.

"Wang Jinbao has fought with us too many times, and against people like him, it doesn't work to use stratagems, so he can only storm the south gate!" Liu Tichun said, "We are only a dozen steps away from the city wall, and one more day of attack can fill the moat and push the large siege weapons up!" ”

However, Liu Tichun made a mistake in judgment, and in the end, in this short period of more than ten steps, the loyal battalion did not fill it up for three days, because the Baoji city wall was tall and strong, the moat was deep, and the resistance of the Qing army at the head of the city was very tenacious, which caused great losses to the loyalty under the city. What made the loyal battalion even more troublesome was that Wang Jinbao kept sending death squads down from the city to destroy the shield carts of the loyal battalion, build the mounds, and cut down the auxiliaries.

The loyal battalion suffered heavy losses, losing more than 15,000 auxiliaries and even more than 1,000 soldiers under the city, so that the moat at the outer end of the southern city could be filled so that large siege weapons could be pushed up.