It's not that Hong Chengchou is confused and bets all his troops on Changzhou City, but Hong Chengchou understands people's hearts.

If Changzhou City is lost this time, then Ying Tianfu will become the target of the public, and the rebel army from all over the south of the Yangtze River will go north, the trees will fall and scatter, and the wall will fall and everyone will push it, and if Wu Zheng gets the support of the rebel army, then Ying Tianfu will be really dangerous.

Only by fighting and retreating, try to lose the strength of the Ming army, even if it cannot stop the Ming army in Changzhou, at least most of the strength of the Ming army must be lost, so that the Ming army will retreat in the face of the strong defense of Yingtianfu, and dare not covet it.

And Hong Chengchou was confident that he would inflict heavy losses on the Ming army in Changzhou City.

As a precaution, Hong Chengchou issued a strict order not to go out of the city to meet the battle under any circumstances, in case it was broken by the Ming army one by one.

Hong Chengchou believes that with the strength of 16,000 people in the city, the Ming army is only more than 6,000 people, and no matter how you attack, it is very difficult to do without paying huge casualties.

It was against this background that the Battle of Changzhou broke out.

Although Wu Zheng was anxious, he was by no means arrogant.

He did not want to divide his troops into two or three ways to attack the city, but concentrated his limited forces on one strong attack.

And what Wu Zheng relied on was the generous gift given to him by the people of Jiangyin - heavy armored soldiers.

The heavy armor battalion formed by the Bailing Heavy Armor wants to train and cooperate along the way, which is a big deal.

But let them get used to walking in heavy armor, and this can still be walked.

Therefore, Wu Zheng did not intend to use these heavy armor soldiers to ascend first like the Qing army.

Rather, they were used as a barrier for the besieging soldiers, approaching the walls and gates.

This can indeed be done.

Such heavy armor, without getting close to the city wall, was hit by rolling stones and logs from top to bottom, and other weapons could not cause damage at all.

Although eight artillery pieces were also deployed on the city wall of Changzhou, they could use artillery to bombard these walking heavy infantry, which was like a sentence - use artillery to fight mosquitoes.

Did you hit the shot?

I'm afraid there isn't that good accuracy at this point.

Therefore, Wu Zheng's reliance lies in this.

After the attack was launched, a hundred heavily armored soldiers formed a row, spaced one foot apart, and approached Changzhou City with their heads held high.

They were followed by a single column of crossbowmen, which were used to suppress the crossbowmen on the ramparts.

Behind them were the infantry with long shields.

There was no reserve, no contingency plan, Wu Zheng made a desperate bet and bet all his troops on it.

The first battle was a decisive battle.

Hong Chengchou was indeed surprised, this kind of lifeless play is really rare.

After all, the Ming army is now the attacker, holding the initiative on the battlefield, and it stands to reason that it can carry out a tentative feint to find out the weak resistance on the city wall, and then carry out a strong attack.

Commanders with a little common sense know this truth.

But now, the first battle of the Ming army has become a desperate battle, is the other party really sure of a battle?

The cautious and suspicious Hong Chengchou began to hesitate, what did the Ming army rely on?

Soon, the answer will be revealed, heavy armor!

But Hong Chengchou is strange again, the heavy armor soldiers are indeed unstoppable, but after all, they are a minority, the armor of these heavy armor soldiers of the Ming army, it is obvious that the original owner is the Qing army.

That is to say, the Ming army has no reserves, the heavy armor goes first, and the loss is very large, that is to say, if there is one less, the Ming army will not be able to add one person, how can these hundreds of people break through the city tower that is strictly guarded?

As the heavily armored soldiers approached, the defenders on the towers began to shoot arrows, dense like locust swarms, buzzing in their faces.

Constantly Ming soldiers were shot and overturned, and then shot hedgehogs and nailed to the ground.

Originally, Wu Zheng wanted the heavy armored soldiers who led the columns to raise large shields as cover, but the problem was that the heavy armored soldiers were already overwhelmed by the weight of the armor, and with the large shield weighing more than ten catties, I am afraid that it would not last long, but it would not be beautiful.

Moreover, once the heavy armor raises his shield, it will affect the crossbowmen behind him to shoot arrows into the city.

So under the trade-off, Wu Zheng only let the infantry hold shields, but there are very few big shields, which are not enough to equip every soldier, and the soldiers are holding round shields, which are already good to cover the chest and abdomen on the top of their heads, and they can't cover their whole body.

The enemy's arrows are dense and pervasive, so the casualties caused along the way are not insignificant.

And the roar of the artillery in the city occasionally hit the advancing Ming column, and once hit, several people were blown away.

Fortunately, Wu Zheng separated the columns by one zhang, and the lethality of the shells of this era was basically impossible to spread to a zhang away, so the casualties caused were smaller than those of arrows.

Every time you get close to the city wall, there will be Ming soldiers falling, so to speak, this is taking your life to fill.

But which attack and defense did not come at the cost of human lives? Wu Zheng forced himself to harden his mind and ignore this kind of death.

But this way of advancing the Ming army did surprise the Qing army defenders.

Because of the distance here, you can almost see the other party's face clearly, and the Qing army can naturally see that the soldiers of the Qingming army are almost carrying ladders.

All you see is a bulky board car.

But the surprise is not this, gunpowder siege is not an uncommon thing at this time, at least for important ministers like Hong Chengchou who have been in a high position for a long time, they know very well the power of gunpowder, unless the defenders let the gunpowder cart ignite under the city, otherwise, it is very difficult to break the city with gunpowder.

First of all, a large amount of water can be poured on the city to make the gunpowder damp, and secondly, huge stones and rolling logs can block the cart from moving forward, as long as the gunpowder cart is spaced twenty steps away from the city wall and the city gate, then even if it explodes, the damage to the city wall and the city gate can be minimized.

Hong Chengchou was even more puzzled in his heart, what was the intention behind the commander of the Ming army?

Could it be that hundreds of lives are used to test the power of a gunpowder explosion?

Hong Chengchou ordered to throw stones, roll wood, and ordered crossbowmen to inject the Ming troops around the killing cart.

This order directly put at least thirty percent of the hundred carts behind fifty paces away from the city wall.

Although the soldiers behind the car had a cart as cover, the city wall was very long, and the distance from the city wall was close, and the angle between the two sides of the city wall was already very small, and the defenders could shoot the Ming soldiers from the side.

But the Ming army was still advancing, ignoring the falling rocks and rolling logs in front of them, and in the blink of an eye, they advanced another twenty paces.

Hong Chengchou ordered again and poured fire oil into the city.

The intention of pouring fire oil in the original defense of the city was to burn the enemy when they approached the city wall, and to make it more difficult for the enemy to climb the wall, because it was slippery.

But at this time, Hong Chengchou ordered a large amount of fire oil to be dumped when the Ming army had not yet approached the city wall, with only one purpose, that is, to completely block the Ming army's gunpowder vehicles from approaching the city wall.

Everyone knows that when gunpowder encounters fire, it will be ignited, and a large area of fire oil will burn up to form a wall of fire.