While the order was given to put the whole army on alert, the general army of Hanyang had doubts in his heart and decided to go to the city wall again. He first went to the south tower to look at the Ming army in the distance, and saw a neat procession half a mile away from the city wall.

"They hid so far away, even if the wall collapsed, they couldn't rush in immediately." If the preparation time in the early stage of the cave attack is not considered at all, the offensive posture of the Ming army is extremely obvious, and the target of the attack is not concealed at all, and the two trenches in front of the city wall that are about to be blasted have been filled in by the Ming army. The Hanyang General Army urgently sent several veterans to the vicinity of the city wall to knock, and in this way it was possible to determine whether a hole had been dug underneath. But soon the veterans reported that there was no sound coming back from the wall, and that the foundation of the wall below was intact.

"I knew ......," the general muttered, but still pointed to the trench that had been filled by the Ming army and gave a series of orders. He ordered an additional group of soldiers to be stationed on the wall behind the ditch, and another group of armor soldiers to stand by behind the wall. Although he still didn't believe that the Ming army could dig out the foundation of the wall in one day and one night, the deployment of the Hanyang general army was now based on the premise that the other party could dig up the city wall.

After deploying the southern defenses, the commander-in-chief ordered the northern walls to be on the same alert.

Since the arrival of the Ming army, Zhou Peigong has been very nervous. This is the first time he has been on the battlefield, and the relaxed posture of the chief soldier before had a certain comforting effect on Zhou Peigong, but now seeing the heralds around the chief soldier rushing to Zhongxiang like flowing water, Zhou Peigong's heart suddenly rose again.

"Didn't the marshal say yesterday that the city wall can't be dug in ten or eight days?" Zhou Peigong found a time gap and hurriedly asked.

"It should be so, most of the thieves are bluffing, using tactics to attack the heart, but the art of war is prepared." Zhou Peigong is a scholar, and he is young, and his future is limitless, and the general soldier is also very polite to him: "We usually have to let the sons and daughters move more, so as not to slack off." ”

The general soldiers of Hanyang walked down the castle tower surrounded by personal guards. The jīng rui he had brought from Wuchang was assembled near the Yamen of Fucheng, that is, in the center of the city, and the general army was to rush to command them in person.

"Could it be the thief's exhausting tactic?" Zhou Peigong thought hard for a while, and then came up with a new guess.

"Mr. Zhou is very discerning, most of the time."

The chief soldier smiled and nodded again and again, but he was very disapproving: "Tired soldiers? Can they see what is going on inside our city from outside the city? How do they know if they've achieved their goal? If a scholar like you is leading the troops outside the city, it must be bluffing me. However, since it is Hao Shaoqi and them, most of them have some tricks, so I still have to be careful. ”

Seeing that he was about to walk back to the mansion with Zhou Peigong, there was a sudden loud bang behind him, which startled the general soldier and the people around him to look back together, only to see a column of yellow-brown smoke and dust rising into the sky from the south.

"What's going on?" The general soldier and the crowd were all shocked, they had never seen such a formation.

When the Ming soldiers guarding the tunnel in the north of the city saw the smoke rising, they immediately lit the fuse, and then left the tunnel and ran to the safe rear, where the Ming army was also in full array. Hao Shaoqi, who led the army, rode on his horse with a relaxed expression, watching the demoman who lit the fire in front of him running back towards him, he knew that after a pillar of incense, the city wall in front of him would also be blasted out of a gap.

At this time, the Ming army in the south of the city had already launched an attack. After the smoke and dust flew upward, He Zhen and Liu Tichun ordered almost at the same time, and thousands of Ming soldiers shouted in unison and began to attack Zhong Xiang. Armor soldiers are used to overcome the possible resistance of the enemy, and after breaking through the city defenses, auxiliaries will also follow into the city, they can help tie up prisoners, search for routs, pacify the people, monitor the surrenders, and if necessary, these auxiliaries can also join the battle. If the opponent's resistance is weak, these auxiliaries can also subdue the sporadic resistance.

At the forefront was the personal guard commando led by He Zhen himself, and when he rushed towards the city wall first, he and the soldiers around him were quite experienced in raising their shields diagonally upwards or covering their heads with cloaks. After experiencing several blasts of the city wall, these commando soldiers knew that some broken bricks would soon fall from the sky, and although these pieces were small and could not hurt anyone, they would still hurt if they hit their faces.

Today's blasting was carried out in two places at the same time, and He Zhen insisted that Liu Tichun first detonate the city wall on the southern side. He knew that even if Hao Shaoqi on the opposite side lit the fuse immediately after hearing the blasting sound, it would be about a pillar of incense at night, which would leave him time for He Zhen to rush into the mansion and get the first skill to conquer Zhong Xiang.

This head work is not as valuable as before. In the past, the first general to storm the city and take the yamen could justifiably get the most spoils of war, but now because of the use of explosives, even if they take the first prize, they will not get too much share. Yuan Zongdi, who was in charge of the outside of the city, would not be much less. However, He Zhen feels that a little more is a little, and it is better to score more points than less.

In the past, even if the cave attack was successful, the walls would not collapse completely, and it would often be a rather steep slope, with the defenders of the city raining down arrows and large quantities of stones from behind the battlements on both sides of the slope, and lighting flames on the slope to hinder the attackers. At that time, in order to boost morale, He Zhen often had to offer amazing bounties for the soldiers to rush the defenders - brave the arrows and rocks to climb steep slopes, rush through raging fires and fight the defenders behind.

But now He Zhen didn't bother to say anything about rewards, he led the assault team to rush in from the gap, and there were countless Qing soldiers lying on the ground around him. At the time of the explosion just now, many Qing soldiers were standing on top of the collapsed city wall, and these Qing soldiers were still a group of veterans with the most defensive experience in the city, some of whom were Wuchang soldiers brought by the Hanyang General Army to assist in the defense.

Since these soldiers could not hear the sound of the air under the base of the wall, it was naturally difficult to judge the location of the cave attack, and they assumed that the trench filled by the Ming army was the center point of the cave attack, and for safety, they stood a few meters away from the center point. Even among the most experienced soldiers, few of them actually encountered the attack in person, and most of them had heard from the officers about the scene when they were attacked. Generally, there is a clear warning before the collapse of the city wall, and the collapse is a slow and continuous process, and the people on the city wall have time to adjust their position, and it is not dangerous to be slightly closer to the center, and it is also conducive to seizing a good defensive position. The officers believed that since they could not hear the sound of the air under the base of the wall, most of the Ming troops who filled the trenches were to attack the city, and standing close could kill and injure the besiegers more effectively.

As a result, the most experienced and courageous officers and veterans were blasted into the sky along with the city wall, and the Qing soldiers behind the nearby battlements were also shaken and fell from the city wall, and those who did not fall off the city wall were also knocked over by the shock wave of the explosion, and could no longer get up.

For the Ming army standing half a mile away, the gravel falling from the sky was at most a bag in the face. But it was not so simple for the Qing army armor soldiers behind the city wall, first they were dizzy by the explosion, and then countless large bricks fell crackling. Those Qing soldiers who were far away from the blasting point and were not killed or injured by the shock had no time to dodge, and a rain of green bricks suddenly fell from the sky, and hundreds of armored soldiers deployed behind the wall were taken by surprise.

When He Zhen rushed in, the smoke and dust had not yet cleared, and he and his subordinates around him brandished broadswords and spears, and without saying a word, they slashed at the heads of the Qing soldiers who fell to the ground gasping for breath, and in the blink of an eye, they cut down all the Qing soldiers who could still move after the opening. Then He Zhen pointed at the sword in his hand, and countless Ming troops shouted and followed, heading north towards the depths of Zhongxiang City.

At this time, the general army of Hanyang had not yet understood what was happening, but they had already seen the banners of urgency raised on the two towers in the south and west of the city, and on these two towers, you could see the Ming army blasting the section of the city wall in the south and west of the city, and the scene of the Ming army pouring into the city from the gap.

"Dashuai, what's going on?" Zhou Peigong asked anxiously.

"Hehe," Hanyang's chief soldier pretended to smile calmly, "The thief still has some ability, and he actually dug up the city wall." ”

"So what to do?"

"Mr. Zhou, don't panic, it's nothing more than soldiers coming to block and water to cover up." The general army of Hanyang ordered the army that had been assembled in front of the prefect's yamen to set off as a group, and the top priority was to reinforce the breach of the city wall. Until this time, the general soldier was not in a hurry, he had just deployed a defensive force behind the trench filled by the Ming army, and the general soldier estimated that the defenders were resisting at the gap in the city wall at this time, and the Ming army was still unable to break into the city for a moment.

As soon as reinforcements arrive, the gap will be blocked. If the combat effectiveness of the Ming army is stronger than the general soldier imagined, and some of the Ming army has broken into the city, the general army will command these assembled Qing soldiers to launch a powerful counterattack, recapture the gap, close the communication inside and outside the city, and then destroy those Ming soldiers who have broken into the city.

Waving the flag, the general soldier strode towards his warhorse. The Wuchang soldiers who saw the banner also cleaned up their appearance, stopped whispering, and held their heads high, waiting to meet the enemy with the general flag of the general army.

"Boom!"

A louder explosion rang out than before, this time from the north-west of the city. The stunned general soldier and thousands of Qing soldiers looked in the direction where the second loud bang came from, only to see that there was also a sky full of smoke and dust, which seemed more than the previous time, and spread more widely in the sky.

"Has the northern wall been dug up as well?" Zhou Peigong shouted, why did he feel that the shape of the officers and soldiers seemed to be very bad?

"How is that possible?" The chief soldier was stunned and muttered to himself, unable to move for a long time. He had already sent someone to hear about it in both places, and there must have been no large hollowed-out area under the base of the wall.

Not long after the explosion passed, the general soldiers saw that the tower in the north of the city also raised the banner of urgency, and waved the flag into the city like crazy. At this time, three lights were raised on the banner on the west tower.

Three lights! One is a fierce battle on the city wall on both sides of the tower, two is a fierce battle in front of the gate of the city gate, and three is the city is about to be broken! This is the most urgent and desperate emergency flag, and in general, it will be the last signal from the city gatehouse.

It seems to echo the West City, and the bell suddenly rings on Zhong Xiang's high bell tower. Originally, the bell on the bell tower could not be struck indiscriminately, especially during the war, but now the bell tower sounded a continuous and rapid sound, so tight that anyone could hear the panic in the bell. One can imagine the panicked Qing soldiers on the bell tower - they must have been sweating profusely, and were ringing the bell frantically, trying their best to send out a jǐng report to the whole city.

Three lamps were hung in Xicheng, the bell tower began to strike the bell in a frenzy, and the prefect and officers of Anlu Mansion, as well as the governor of the Governor's Mansion surnamed Zhou, were all speechless in horror. The army, which had just calmed down, was in an uproar again, and the soldiers began to talk to each other again.

"It's not a big deal," Hanyang General knew that he must not panic at this time. The west gate had been plugged up, and three lamps were hung up, indicating that the people on the tower saw at the same time that the walls on both the north and south sides were under urgent attack. The bell tower is the commanding height in the city, and the battle situation outside the city cannot be seen, and the general soldier estimates that the people above ring the bell because they see that the Ming army has a tendency to break through behind the wall - the wall has just collapsed, and the enemy's tendency to break through is already very amazing. After the chief soldier made a judgment in his heart, he immediately repeated to the people around him in a loud and powerful voice: "It's no big deal! Ben will first go to reinforce the south of the city, and then turn back to the north of the city to protect the city walls and eliminate the thieves who enter the city. ”

After speaking, the general army called the deputy general and assigned him 500 soldiers to go to the north of the city to reinforce the gap. This army, coupled with the blocking troops deployed in front, the general soldier thought that there was no major problem in holding the Ming army back for an hour. He decided that it would be better to lead the main force to destroy the Ming army south of the city first. After all, the south of the city was attacked first, and the threat was greater, and the bell tower was probably ringing because of the crisis in the south of the city.

The prefect of Anlu Mansion also hurriedly asked Ying to go with the deputy general to reinforce the north of the city.

"That's the best." The general soldier of Hanyang nodded vigorously, and tried his best to use his composure to make the others recover from the panic: "Just block the thieves, and the soldiers in other areas should not be lightly transferred, so as not to fall into the thieves' plan to attack the west." ”

"Understood, understood." The prefect of Anlu Prefecture hurriedly ordered the armor soldiers around the prefect's yamen and rushed to the north of the city with the deputy general to support.

"Don't worry!" Like the Hanyang General Soldier, the deputy general under him also seemed full of confidence, and he patted his chest and assured the general soldier: "Don't say that it is an hour, that is, a day and a night, and the thieves will not want to rush into the city from the front of the last general, otherwise the last general will cut off his head to see the commander." ”

Although they rushed to the same place, the two groups did not follow the same route, the adjutant general led 500 Wuchang soldiers to the avenue leading to the north city tower, and the prefect led the troops to the west city tower - the influence of the three lanterns raised there was so bad that the prefect had to rush to take down the lanterns and take the responsible officer in charge of military justice.

The calmness of the Hanyang general soldier also had an infectious effect on Zhou Peigong, seeing the general soldier so calm and composed, Zhou Peigong was also deeply ashamed of his panic just now, and he deeply realized the meaning of the phrase "will be the army master".

"Drumming!" The general soldier turned on his horse, raised his chin high into the sky, and ordered the army to beat the drums and advance. Although the people on the bell tower were still ringing the bell like crazy people, the general soldier knew that he must not panic at this time, once the rumors spread, the army's heart could easily get out of control. After the army began to move to the south of the city, the chief soldier called a henchman and ordered him to lead a group of men to the bell tower and execute all the few people who did not know the importance of the above.

The main force of the Wuchang army followed the banner of the general army, and stepped neatly on the avenue leading to the Nanchenglou of the government office, and the heavy footsteps of the two thousand green battalion soldiers trampled the earth trembling slightly.

Behind the general soldier was his standard-bearer, then the personal guard on horseback, and then the most reliable, best-equipped, and most well-trained pro-soldier battalion. The infantry of the pro-barracks lined up in a six-man wide queue and filled Zhong Xiang's avenue. The spearmen in the pro-barracks held their spears tightly in their right hands one by one, and raised the tips of their spears straight to the sky; The sword and shield soldier also holds the handle of the waist knife with his right hand and carries the shield on his back...... The soldiers lined up in a neat line, shaking their bodies in the same rhythm, taking the same sized steps, and following the general soldier towards the southern city.

"A lantern ......" Hanyang General Soldier walked in front of the team, looking up at the Nancheng Tower that was getting closer and closer, he saw a lantern gradually rising to the top of the flagpole.

This is an indication that there have been fierce battles on the walls on both sides of the tower. At this time, the general soldier had almost reached the bottom of the tower, and he did not see any signs of battle on the walls on both sides of the tower, but many soldiers were shouting in panic.

The first lantern had just stopped on the flagpole, and the second lantern also wobbled into the air and appeared in the field of vision of the general soldiers.

"Ugh." Hanyang General Soldier sighed softly. If two lanterns are raised to the flagpole, it means that the attackers and defenders are fiercely fighting for control of the city gates. However, he could clearly see the gate hole of the southern city in this place, and the inside was still tightly blocked by large stones, which only meant that there would be a lantern that would be raised soon.

Sure enough, a third lantern appeared on the flagpole without any incident.

"Ridiculous." Hanyang General couldn't help but scold. His banner was not far from the city tower, and behind it was a strict formation composed of thousands of Qing troops, and the guards on the city tower must have seen this qiē, but they even raised this kind of signal that shook people's hearts. When they saw him coming, the soldiers on the castle tower not only did not return to normal, but shouted something in the direction of their banner.

"In a while, we must kill a few of the people who shake the morale of the army the most." The chief soldier said fiercely in his heart. The sound of war drums behind him was calm and powerful, in stark contrast to the chaos on the city tower in front of him: "How did the prefect of Anlu and Zhong Xiang's generals train their troops?" When I get back, I must ask the Governor for a copy of them. ”

At this time, the general army of Hanyang had already come to the front of the castle tower, and several of the defenders of the castle tower rushed to his horse.

"Ming, Ming, Ming, Ming......" The person who rushed over looked at him as if he was the general manager of Qian, who was guarding the Nancheng Tower, his lips trembled, and he couldn't say the complete words, and he said four or five "Ming" in one breath, but he couldn't even spit out the second word "army".

"Ming, Ming? Did the thieves kill the walls on both sides of the gap? Seeing the other party's appearance of a bad species, the chief soldier asked impatiently and disgustedly.

That Qian Zong nodded desperately, his movements were so violent that he seemed to break his neck, and at the same time stretched out his left arm with all his strength and pointed to the west.

The general soldier took a step forward and looked west along his arm, and at this time his vision was no longer obstructed by the houses, and he saw only a small group of Ming troops running towards him against the wall—the Hanyang general had planned to take this road under the city wall to reinforce the gap.

"I set off immediately after the city wall collapsed," the general soldier was stunned for a moment: "Why has the Ming army already touched here?" ”

The blast was in the south of the city close to the west wall, and after He Zhen came in, he rushed along the west wall to the west tower, and when he first began to attack the west tower, the prefect of Anlu Mansion led hundreds of Anlu soldiers to come to reinforcements. Liu Tichun, who followed closely, was supposed to turn right to fight the South City Tower, but after learning the news, he changed his mind, he thought that there were only more than 1,000 Manchu soldiers in the city, and concluded that the hundreds of Qing soldiers found by He Zhen were the main force in the city. Liu Tichun further deduced that excluding the hundreds of main forces in the city that were originally concentrated in the prefect's yamen and were now rushing to the west of the city, there were one or two hundred armored soldiers scattered on various city towers, and it would not pose a major disaster. And if you don't go to support He Zhen, although you can bring more than 1,000 soldiers into the city, You Zhen also has the ability to deal with both sides at the same time, but it will prolong the battle time and may suffer large losses.

Liu Tichun immediately made a decision, ordered the original plan to be aborted, and went north at full speed to reinforce He Zhen, thinking that if the main force of the Qing army was defeated, the battle would probably be over. In addition, the sound of the bell on the bell tower in the southwest of the city also made Liu Tichun upset when he heard it, and he ordered a general to take a team of soldiers to seize the bell tower. At the same time, the bell tower is also a commanding height, which can not only observe the shape of the city, but also further shake the fighting spirit of the defenders of the city after planting the red flag of the Ming army on it.

When the Hanyang general army and the small group of Ming troops collided, Liu Tichun had already rushed to the vicinity of Xichenglou with the main force, and he felt that the roads in the city could not deploy troops, so he let the soldiers disperse into the southwest city, outflank the Chengxi Avenue along many streets and alleys, and launched a full-scale siege of the troops of the prefect of Anlu Prefecture on it.

Hao Shaoqi in the north of the city also led more than 3,000 soldiers to Zhongxiang City after the blasting, he entered the city according to the original plan and turned left to attack the north of the city tower, when the forward rushed to the front of the city tower, the five hundred Wuchang who were ordered to support the gap in the north of the city also arrived with artillery. After learning that there were hundreds of armored soldiers in the green battalion ahead, Hao Shaoqi made the same judgment as Liu Tichun, he believed that he had captured Zhong Xiang's main force of the Qing army, and immediately urged the whole army to rush towards these Wuchang soldiers. It was also out of the same consideration as Liu Tichun, Hao Shaoqi's army was scattered in the northwest city, chasing and intercepting the hundreds of Wuchang soldiers who came from Chengbei Avenue.

After Liu Tichun led the main force to the north, only a small number of Ming troops searched and advanced eastward from the gap in the south of the city and stuck to the city wall, and these Ming troops who came to the Hanyang general army were only a few dozen people, and a few of them were in Yunyang, Gucheng, Yicheng and other places to surrender to the Ming army before the Qing army Green Battalion, and some were auxiliaries who wanted to make meritorious contributions to the war army. They did not follow the main forces of He Zhen and Liu Tichun to the north, but along the city wall to the south of the city tower, they wanted to persuade or subdue the defenders on the city tower and make a little war achievement.

At first glance, when he saw the two-zhang high general military flag that suddenly appeared in front of him, the dozen or so Ming soldiers who walked in the front were also stunned. These Ming soldiers, the Hanyang General Soldiers, and several personal guards of the General Soldiers stared at each other, and no one reacted for a while.

Wow, whoa, whoop......

Dense armor-clad Qing soldiers followed the banner of the general soldier and walked around the corner of the street.

……

"It's really easy."

Deng Ming sighed with emotion, and led the guards to the gap in the south of the city slowly.

As on previous occasions, the Qing army was not able to organize any effective resistance at the breach; In turn, the more experienced Ming army grasped the timing of the attack better and better. Today's battle was better than the previous times, and it rushed into the city almost at the first moment after the blasting, and most of the Qing troops were dizzy and rolling on the ground at that time.

There are only a small number of Ming soldiers in the gap, and a large number of Ming army auxiliaries are clearing the bricks and stones at the gap, or following the soldiers to search the surrounding houses, while pacifying the people, while searching out those Qing soldiers who tried to hide.

When those eastward soldiers rushed to the south city tower, some Ming soldiers also climbed the city wall from the slope, preparing to expel the enemy troops on this section of the city wall. At the base of the city wall on both sides of the gap, there were many Qing soldiers with broken heads and bleeding, sitting on the ground one by one, dejectedly, and without resistance, they let the Ming army's auxiliaries tie them up firmly.

Based on his previous experience, Deng Ming knew that soon there would be countless sprint races outside the city. Defenders on the walls with no way to escape would rope themselves down of the city in an attempt to escape the doomed city.

But there are tens of thousands of eyes staring at these people around the city, and the auxiliaries will scramble to catch these routs. Capturing these enemy soldiers who have lost their fighting spirit and abandoned their weapons is a dangerous opportunity for meritorious service, except for a very few sprinting geniuses, the vast majority of the defeated soldiers will be captured by the auxiliaries outside the city.

"What's that?" After climbing the city wall from the slope by the gap, Deng Ming pointed in the direction of the Nancheng City Tower and asked suspiciously.

At this time, there were already more Qing soldiers turning the corner of Chengnan Avenue, and those Ming soldiers who wanted to attack or persuade the Nanchenglou to surrender also had a few reactions, they shouted, turned around and ran back to the way they came.

At the same time that Deng Ming saw these Ming troops begin to turn around and flee, he also saw the large group of Qing soldiers who turned out from the south of the city, although the distance was far away, he could also see the black pressure of the human head quickly paving the road by the city wall, countless weapons flashing in the air, and countless flags fluttering in the shadow of swords and swords.

The sword is like a forest, and the flag is like the sea.