The previous strategy was to take advantage of Sun Chuanting's entry into the city to take it directly, and then launch an attack on the Praetorian Guard, which had lost its commander. Now that Sun Chuanting refused to enter the city, the previous plan failed. However, Li Yan did not show a disappointed look like Song Xiance and others, because he knew that the road to rebellion could not be smooth sailing, and there would always be problems of one kind or another. But as the commander of the army, he can't show weakness in front of his subordinates at any time.

What's more, in Li Yan's view, he may not have other opportunities. Sun Chuanting was in a hurry to lead the army south, and this was his flaw. Even if there is no internal and external cooperation of the defenders of Nanyang City, as long as the camp is held and not fought a decisive battle with it, Sun Chuanting can be consumed!

"Childe is right, we still have a lot of opportunities." Niu Jinxing on the side glanced at Song Xiance and echoed Li Yandao.

Among Li Yan's subordinates, Niu Jinxing and Song Xiance were the first batch of scholars to vote, Niu Jinxing had a meritorious reputation, and was later convicted and exempted from fame, and was sent to the mountains of Ruzhou to work as miners. Although Song Xiance is also a scholar, he is just a child who has not even passed the Xiucai examination, pretending to be a Taoist priest to make a living in order to make a living, and the purpose of defecting to Li Yan is also to speculate and try to change his fate.

The reason why Song Xiance won Li Yan's trust was that he offered a proverb of "Eighteen Sons Master Artifact". The Eighteen Sons is a Li character, implying that the surname Li will be the emperor. The reason why Li Yan rebelled was naturally ambitious, although he didn't dare to expose the idea of becoming an emperor now, it did not prevent him from being blue-eyed towards Song Xiance. What's more, Song Xiance does have some cleverness, and he is not bad at doing things.

Niu Jinxing was naturally unhappy with Song Xiance's favor, after all, in his opinion, Song Xiance was just a swaggering liar, how could he compare with his own dignity. Therefore, the two often compete for favor, and now seeing the failure of Song Xiance's plan, Niu Jinxing is still very happy in his heart.

"Childe, in my opinion, we don't need to rush to a decisive battle with Sun Chuanting, since we know that he is in a hurry to go south, let's defend the camp. When its offensive slows down and the army is exhausted, it can then fight with Tang Wang's army inside and outside. Niu Jinxing suggested.

"The words of the military advisor are very much in line with my wishes." Li Yan nodded.

"Childe, if you want to defeat the Praetorian Guard, it is too difficult for us to rely on our family, and we need the cooperation of the defenders. I am willing to go to the Tang King in the city as an envoy to help Gongzi and the Tang King to communicate. Song Xiance said again.

Song Xiance knew that in terms of handling military affairs and the ability to govern the army, he was far from Niu Jinxing, and the only thing he could rely on was the conspiracy in his belly.

The Praetorian Guards will attack soon, and the Red Turban Army can only defend here, and the real breakthrough is still in the defenders of Nanyang City. Therefore, he must enter Nanyang City and coordinate the defenders to fight, so that he can make a contribution in defeating Sun Chuanting.

"There's Mr. Law." Li Yan nodded and agreed to Song Xiance's request. He knew Song Xiance's thoughts, and he also knew that fighting with the Praetorian Guard could not be separated from the cooperation of the Nanyang defenders, so it was appropriate to send Song Xiance to collude with him.

"Mr. told Tang Wang that he was not in a hurry to fight a decisive battle. Let the Praetorian Guards attack for a few days, and then they will frustrate their spirits. Li Yan said.

"Yes." Song Xiance said.

Follow the envoy sent by the Tang King to the city of Nanyang, and then be hung up in the city.

"Li Yan won't let my army move tomorrow?" Zhu Yujian said in surprise.

"Yes, Li Gongzi said to defend it first, frustrate the spirit of the Praetorian Guard, and then launch a general attack." Song Xiance explained.

"That's fine, I'm afraid that the Praetorian Guard is too strong, and Li Yan won't be able to hold it." Zhu Yu keyed.

"Don't worry, after all, Li Gongzi's subordinates have nearly 100,000 troops, and it is not a problem to hold on for a few days." Song Xiance said.

Li Yan had as many as 100,000 men, and he stayed in a strong camp, and the attacking Praetorian Guards were only more than 20,000, and anyone could stand it for a long time.

However, fighting a war is not something of imagination, and many people still do not fully understand the strength of the Praetorian Guard.

Early the next morning, Sun Chuanting led the army to attack the camp of the Red Turban Army.

More than 100 artillery pieces lined up in front of the camp of the Red Turban Army and launched a fierce artillery bombardment on the camp.

"Boom Boom"

The sound was deafening, and the sound spread for several miles, even the people in Nanyang City, more than ten miles away, could hear the sound of cannons.

Accompanied by the sound of artillery, shells fell into the camp of the Red Turban Army, smashing down many tents, and frightening the soldiers in the camp to shout.

To be honest, the power of a solid shell is not very great, as long as it does not happen to be hit by a shell, it is not much danger at all. But it's too loud and too scary. Listening to the deafening sound of artillery, watching the shells fall into the camp, and watching the flesh and blood of some accomplices being smashed by the shells, the impact on other soldiers of the Red Turban Army was still very great.

These soldiers of the Red Turban Army are all peasants who have just put down their hoes, and they have encountered artillery battles at most on weekdays, and the simultaneous bombardment of more than 100 artillery pieces is tens of millions of times more powerful than the artillery battles during the Chinese New Year. Seeing the shells falling on their sides, many soldiers were so frightened that they ran away, and the camp was suddenly in chaos.

"Pass the order, guard the base camp, prohibit running around, and those who dare to violate the military order will be beheaded immediately!" Seeing the situation in the camp, Li Yan hurriedly ordered.

Dozens of personal soldiers stepped on their horses and galloped towards the battalions, conveying Li Yan's orders.

After receiving Li Yan's order, the generals of each battalion began to work hard to control the situation, and many soldiers who ran around were directly killed, and the riot quickly subsided.

The Janissaries artillery was still roaring tirelessly, but the anti-thief camp was silent, and many anti-thief soldiers were trembling and hiding in their tents, allowing the shells to fall. If you run out, you will be killed by the Warlords, and they will not dare to run around.

"Keep bombarding, how long do I see how long they can last?" Sun Chuanting sneered.

There was a riot in the camp when the Red Turban Thieves were first shelled, but it quickly subsided, which made Sun Chuanting realize that there were capable people in the camp. But he didn't care, his absolute strength was enough to crush everything.

......

"I have heard for a long time that the firepower of the Praetorian Guard is strong, but I didn't expect it to be so strong!" Nanyang City Tower, Zhu Yujian listened to the faint sound of cannons, and couldn't help but sigh.

"Don't worry, Lord Wang, Sun Chuanting doesn't seem to have any heavy artillery, and the sound is all small cannons, so he shouldn't be able to help the Red Turban Army camp." Zhu Cheng, who was guarding Zhu Yujian's side, replied.

Zhu Cheng was born in a military family, and once went to the Liaodong battlefield with the army, and participated in the Battle of Salhu as a guest soldier, but was defeated by Jiannu. After escaping back to Henan from Liaodong, it happened that the Tang Dynasty recruited palace guards, and Zhu Cheng was selected, because his various qualities far surpassed others, and he was deeply appreciated by Zhu Yujian's father, the old Tang Wang, so he was given the surname Zhu and made him the commander of the palace guards.

Judging from the roaring sound of artillery, Zhu Cheng could tell that there was no heavy artillery like the Hongyi cannon, and it would be difficult for ordinary artillery to break through the camp.

"Since learning that Sun Chuanting led the army south, Li Gongzi ordered the camp to be rebuilt, and the thickness of the camp wall was more than one meter, and Li Gongzi also ordered to constantly pour water on the camp wall, and now the entire camp wall has become an ice wall, and Sun Chuanting's artillery should not be able to break the camp wall." Song Xiance also said.

As they had guessed, the shelling continued throughout the morning, causing only a few riots in the battalion, which destroyed hundreds of tents, killed more than a hundred Red Turban soldiers, and nothing else.

"Inspector, the wall of the thief camp is too thick, and there is another layer of ice on it, and it can't be opened at all." Xu Ze, the chief soldier who commanded the artillery battle, said to Sun Chuanting.

If you can't collapse the camp wall, then you can only climb over the camp wall to attack the local camp, although the camp wall is only one zhang high, but it is impossible to climb over it yourself, you must use ladders, and in that case, there is not much difference from siege warfare.

"It seems that the thief army is trying to hide in the turtle shell and not come out." Li Hongji said, "Supervisor, if you want to defeat them quickly, you can't rely on artillery bombardment, you can only attack." ”

Sun Chuanting was silent and didn't speak, he was thinking about the gains and losses. If it is attacked, it will naturally be able to attack with the combat effectiveness of the Praetorian Guard, but the casualties will inevitably be large. He also had to go to Jiangxi to fight against the thieves, and Sun Chuanting didn't want to lose too much.

However, if it is not stormed, artillery bombardment alone will not be able to collapse the camp wall.

If it were another time, Sun Chuanting would not be in a hurry at all, he just needed to consume it slowly. As long as the cavalry is used to block the battlefield and cut off the enemy's supply routes, no matter how hard the enemy's turtle shell is, it will not be able to support it without food.

But now, I don't have time to spend it!

"Assault!" Sun Chuanting finally made up his mind. The emperor's decree must not be ignored, so he must defeat the enemy in front of him as soon as possible before he can lead his troops south. For this reason, Sun Chuanting had to decide to suffer a certain degree of casualties.

Following Sun Chuanting's order, the Praetorian Guards began to attack the Red Turban Army camp.

First of all, the trench outside the camp was filled, probably because of the cold weather, and the trench outside the anti-thief camp was not dug deeply, less than one zhang, and only one zhang wide. But even such a trench could block the way of the Praetorian Guard, and it was impossible to attack the Red Turban camp without filling the trench.

Under the protection of the shield cart, the Praetorian Guard soldiers began to fill in the trenches, and the Red Turban Army naturally did not watch the trenches being filled in, under the command of Li Yan, the Red Turban Army archers on the camp wall rained arrows and fired at the Praetorian Guard soldiers who filled the trenches.

The soldiers of the Praetorian Guard were all wearing cloth cotton armor and thick cotton clothes on the outside, and the soldiers did not care about the arrows that were fired, and many of them did not even deliberately dodge, as long as they were not shot in the face, such a shot would not cause much harm at all.

Of course, he couldn't just be beaten and not fight back, Sun Chuanting also sent more than a thousand musketeers to line up in front of the trench and shoot at the thieves on the camp wall to cover other soldiers to fill the trench.

Above and below the camp wall, arrows were bouncing back and forth, and from time to time someone let out a scream, and most of the screams were the Red Turban soldiers guarding the wall.

Condescendingly, the defenders originally had a great advantage in the counter-shooting. But the quality of the Red Turban Army under Li Yan is too low.

Most of Li Yan's troops were peasants who had just laid down their hoes, and they didn't know how to fight at all, let alone use weapons like bows and arrows. Bows and arrows can't be, let alone firearms, and Li Yan doesn't have any firearms in his hands at all.

Later, after capturing several cities in a row, some Ming soldiers joined Li Yan's troops and captured some bows and arrows, so that Li Yan had a long-range soldier mainly based on bows and arrows. But the number is not much, only more than 1,000 people. And these more than 1,000 archers are also good and bad, some of them shoot arrows well, and many of them are indiscriminate.

The Praetorian Guards, on the other hand, were all new-style Lumi guns, although they were still front-loading guns, troublesome to load, and did not have a poor rifling hit rate, but they still crushed the defenders on the camp wall. After all, the soldiers of the Praetorian Guard, whether they were officers or ordinary soldiers, had their own armor, ordinary soldiers wore cloth armor, and generals wore chain mail, but no matter what kind of armor, it was still okay to defend against bow and arrow shooting.

Therefore, after a round of shooting, the Janissaries suffered few casualties, while the defending archers on the city wall were shot and killed more than 100 people, and the other archers were so frightened that they never dared to show their heads again.

Taking advantage of the fact that their own firecrackers attracted the idea of the defenders, the soldiers in charge of filling the trench moved quickly, and it took half an hour to fill a trench more than 20 zhang long.

Sun Chuanting ordered an immediate attack on the camp.

The Praetorian Guards, under the command of the officer, rushed towards the camp wall, and one after another short ladders were erected on the camp wall, and the soldiers began to climb. Rocks fell on the camp wall, and the attacking Janissaries also threw grenades that lit the fuses on the city one after another, and then exploded with a "boom".

A grenade exploded at the top of the camp wall, and the other Janissaries took the opportunity to climb to the camp wall and control this section of the camp wall, while the other Janissaries attacked the camp along this section of the camp wall.

"Pass the order down, seize the camp gate first!" Observing the situation on the battlefield, Sun Chuanting ordered. As long as the camp gate can be grabbed, the army can rush in, and the battle will be considered a victory.

The Praetorian Guards, who had climbed over the camp wall, began to assemble and kill towards the camp gate, trying to open the camp gate to meet the army into the city. The other Praetorian Guards continued to climb the wall, trying to extend their advantage.

Under the two phases, many Red Turban soldiers couldn't hold on. There are already signs of a rout.

As a last resort, Li Yan had to personally step forward and command, commanding his subordinates to defend the camp gate, and at the same time dispatching troops to launch a counterattack on the lost section of the city wall, trying to recapture the camp wall and drive the Praetorian Guards out.

The battle situation was anxious, Sun Chuanting was very calm, constantly dispatching troops to attack, dispatching and commanding while observing the weaknesses of the defenders, looking for opportunities to break the situation. As long as he finds the weak point of the defenders, Sun Chuanting will send out a thunderous blow and take down the entire camp in one fell swoop!

Li Yan couldn't hold it anymore.

First, there was an artillery bombardment of the camp, which frightened his subordinates, and then the Praetorian Guards attacked the camp wall, and the news spread, which frightened many Red Turban soldiers. In the current situation, although he still has 100,000 troops in his hands, it seems that he has blocked the attack of the Praetorian Guard. But Li Yan knew that if he continued, he would definitely be his subordinates who would collapse first.

"Hurry up and go to Nanyang City and tell Song Xiance that you can start." Li Yan said. Originally, I thought that I would support the Praetorian Guard for a few days and frustrate the spirit of the Praetorian Guard, but now it seems that I am afraid that I will not be able to support it for even a day, so I can only launch an offensive in advance.

ps: I have a cold, my brain is groggy, and I don't know what to write

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