When Li Zicheng saw Liu Zongmin coming from afar, he was so angry that he let out a low snort, immediately took the horsewhip and held it tightly in his hand.

Liu Zongmin and his entourage got closer, and Liu Zongmin took a few steps forward, then pounced and knelt down in front of Li Zicheng.

Li Zicheng didn't say a word, he had a gloomy face, picked up the horsewhip, and whipped hard at Liu Zongmin without a head.

At this time, the surroundings had fallen silent, and the distant noise had fallen silent, except for the whip that twitched, constantly flying in the air, and the sound of crackling and whipping was particularly palpitating in the night sky.

The leather whip that flew like lightning slapped Liu Zongmin's body and face fiercely, so that his face was full of flesh and blood, which was terrifying.

Rao is like this, but Li Zicheng is still whipping like a whip, and he doesn't look like he wants to stop at all. And Liu Zongmin, who was kneeling on the ground, also lowered his head, clenched his teeth, and said nothing.

It wasn't until he had dozens of whips that Li Zicheng stopped.

With a fierce and hateful gaze, he stared at Liu Zongmin, who was kneeling on the ground, gritted his teeth and gasped: "Liu Zongmin, do you know why I beat you like this?" ”

Liu Zongmin didn't look up, he looked bloody, and replied in a deep voice: "I was incompetent, so that the Tang army succeeded in the sneak attack, so that the tunnel was destroyed, the camp was greatly damaged, and there were as many as more than 5,000 soldiers killed or wounded. ”

Li Zicheng let out a long sigh, threw away the horsewhip, and said hatefully: "Hmph, you thief, it's really bad for me!" Fortunately, the hard work and hard work of our army in the past month have been ruined by you! Thousands of soldiers, including those digging tunnels, have all died in vain! You say, should I hit you?! ”

"King Chuang played well, and he was the main general in the lower body, and he made this big mistake, even if he killed his head, he was to blame. and dare to say half a word. Liu Zongmin lowered his head and replied in a muffled voice.

"you! What's the use of saying that now! It's a pity that our army has been busy for nearly a month, and now it's okay, all the work is gone, and how to take this Jintang City next is a big trouble. Li Zicheng paced back and forth with an anxious expression.

At this moment, suddenly a soldier came to report urgently: "Report! King Chuang, the regent of the Qing army urgently asked to see him. ”

"Oh, is he here?" Li Zicheng frowned, sighed again, and then turned to Liu Zongmin and said: "Okay, now that Dolgon is coming, there must be something to discuss, you should retreat first, today's mistakes, and let you make meritorious contributions to other crimes in the future." ”

"Your Majesty retires." Liu Zongmin bowed, and finally got up and quickly retreated with a group of guards.

Immediately, the regent of the Qing Dynasty, Dolgon, surrounded by a group of guards, hurried to Li Zicheng's tent.

Seeing Li Zicheng standing outside the tent door from a distance, with a gloomy face, Dolgon couldn't help but let out a long sigh.

At this time, he already knew what was happening in the south of Jinyu City. From the clairvoyant mirror, when he saw the chaotic scene of the burning camp in the south, Dolgon's heart was entangled.

The well-designed strategy has become a useless joke. Perhaps, even with the heroic name of the regent of the Qing Dynasty, will fall together.

However, he tried his best to control all these bad emotions, and then walked quickly towards Li Zicheng.

Seeing Dolgon coming, although Li Zicheng's face was full of displeasure, he still politely beckoned him to enter the account to talk.

After retiring from the crowd, Li Zicheng asked Dolgon, "Regent, you should also know the current situation. What should you and I do next, what does the regent think? ”

Dorgon let out a long sigh and said with a wry smile: "Now that the situation is so broken, what can this king think about when he recovers?" The Tang Army's counter-killing plan today is really much beyond the imagination of this king. This king really didn't expect that the Tang army would have a countermeasure and dig a cave under the city wall, which is just a plan for us and others, which is really vicious. They were prepared for the unpreparedness of your army, and they came to an authentic counterattack, which was really categorically predicted in advance. Thinking of such an uncontrollable situation, and the losses caused to your army, this king is also guilty. ”

Li Zicheng didn't want to listen to his nonsense, so he waved his hand and said, "Regent, what good is it to mention the mistakes of the past now?" There is no need to say much about the past, you can talk to me about the current situation, and how to deal with it. ”

Dolgon shook his head, his face was melancholy, he groaned slightly, and then said directly: "King Chuang, now that the tunnel has been destroyed, the plan of sneak attack is no longer successful, and the Tang army has already taken precautions, so the only plan now is to attack." “

He paused and replied: "From this point of view, it is necessary for you and my armies, taking advantage of the opportunity when the morale has not fallen and the morale of the army is available, and when the veterans of the division are not tired, we should concentrate our forces to attack the city with all our might, in order to succeed in one fell swoop and take Jintang City. ”

Li Zicheng frowned, was silent for a long time, and finally nodded with a long sigh and said, "The regent is right, and the current plan is the only way to go." Fortunately, in the past month, all kinds of siege equipment and utensils have been built, so wait a few days, and you and I will work together to attack the city. ”

Dolgon snorted, but continued with burning eyes: "King Chuang, according to the strategists of our army, there will be windy weather within three days. In this northern place, the wind is strong and the dust is flying, and although there are many delays in our army's attack, for the Tang army, which relies extremely on firearms, the impact and difficulties are even greater. ”

"Oh?"

"Chuang Wang, the wind and sand will definitely greatly hinder the release of firearms, so that the power of the Tang army's artillery to defend the city will be greatly reduced. This is a very favorable condition for our army to attack the city. ”

"Very good, that is, when the wind and sand rise, you and I will join forces to attack the city, and we will definitely take this Jintang City in one fell swoop!" Li Zicheng slapped his thigh fiercely and made the final decision.

The two of them agreed, and after discussing the details of the cooperation, Dorgon took his leave. Immediately, the two of them went down separately to arrange without mentioning it.

At this time, the entire Jintang City was jubilant.

Duan Shidi, the mayor of the fourth town of the Tang Army, with a happy face, personally commended a group of meritorious soldiers and generals, and the entire Jintang City was full of joy. With this victory, the morale of the Tang army was very high, and they were even more confident in the next battle to defend the city.

Speaking of which, in the current situation, after the Tang army successively thwarted the offensives of the Liukou and the Qing army, for the Tang army defending the city, they seem to feel that this advantage has gradually shifted to their side. They even believed that commanders such as Duan Shidi and Liu Wenxiu now had sufficient plans and troops to deal with the next attack of the Qing army.

Everyone can vaguely feel that a decisive battle to determine the fate of both sides is about to begin.

Of course, such a sense of urgency is even stronger for the commanders of the Tang Army, Duan Shidi and Liu Wenxiu.

They knew that in the current weather, there were many windy and sandy days in the northern part of the country, and the enemy was afraid that in the future, they would most likely take advantage of the strong wind to start a new round of attack.

For such a situation, the two of them were actually prepared for a long time, and they waited until the two armies of Qingshun jointly attacked, and then gave them a head-on attack.

In the early morning of three days later, in the sharp and piercing Conch, the Qing army and the Dashun army officially began to attack Jintang City.

At this time, as the strategist said, suddenly the wind and sand rose, and a fierce sandstorm began to blow in the north. The terrible Xiao wind rolled up countless yellow dust, smearing the entire world into a chaotic yellow.

In the case of extremely low visibility, it can be vaguely seen that the dense army, spread all over the north and southeast three walls of Jintang City, countless soldiers carry all kinds of siege equipment such as siege ladders, siege vehicles, etc., and the soldiers of the two armies of Qingshun are shouting like beasts, and they come to attack the city together. Looking down from the sky, the momentum of the joint siege of the two armies of Qingshun is terrifying.

Standing behind the formation, Dolgon and Li Zicheng both looked at the military formation in front of them with anticipatory eyes. Both of them were full of hope that they could use this coercion to take this Saibei Xiongcheng in one fell swoop and pull out the last foothold of the Tang army.

The sand and dust are rolling all over the sky, and the sky and the earth are dark, but at this time, they are very happy in their hearts.

Because they knew that such a diffuse sandstorm, although the speed of their attack was greatly slowed down, for the Tang army defending the city, the situation would only be more unfavorable.

Because in such dusty weather, the release of Tang military firearms will indeed have an extremely adverse impact as Dolgon said. Like the fire door and barrel of an artillery gun, it is easy to fail to release due to sand and dust, and there is even a risk of exploding. Moreover, because the line of sight is blocked, the Tang Army's aiming and shooting of the target will also be greatly affected.

The heavy siege of the city, the enemy army combined to attack, so that the huge Jintang City, like a small boat in the waves, the situation seems to be precarious.

It's just that above the city, watching the Qing army approach step by step, Duan Shidi, the commander of the Tang army, although his face is solemn, he looks like he is winning.

And the soldiers guarding the city next to him, each holding their own position, holding various weapons, also had a vigilant and confident expression on everyone's face.

The most critical battle is finally coming.

These hateful rogues and Tartars have finally resorted to the last resort, and they are about to start forcibly attacking the city by virtue of their superiority in strength.

It's just that they would never have thought that the Tang army had already spread a big net and was waiting for them to attack the city in front.

After vaguely seeing that the Qing army had entered the longest-range range of the Tang army's Chengtou artillery from a distance, with Duan Shidi's order, hundreds of dragon guns of various types that had been urgently covered with dust-proof wooden planks immediately rumbled and fired.

"Bang bang bang!"

The artillery at the head of the city took turns, and in the deafening sound of the cannon, the afterflames of the cannon muzzle were like countless golden flowers blooming in the cold wind. More than 500 large and small black and red-hot iron bullets, with a sharp death whistle, pierced through the smoke and sand curtains, and swooped down on the rogue soldiers on the shore.

The iron bullet roared through the crowd of enemy soldiers who were running hard, and with absolutely strong and terrifying force, ploughed out a straight path of flesh and blood.

Everywhere the iron bullet reached, screams were repeated, and broken limbs and human internal organs were splashed everywhere, causing absolutely terrifying death and injury to the running rogues and Qing soldiers.

In fact, the iron bullets fired in this way were not accurate because they were already on the edge of the firing range and because they were blocked by the wind and sand, but because the people who were attacking the city were relatively dense, the damage caused to them by these more than 500 iron bullets was still very considerable.

In the blink of an eye, the first round of shelling killed 500 Qingshun allied troops, and nearly 1,000 enemy soldiers were seriously wounded and no longer able to fight.

Of course, compared to the huge strength of the Liukou and Qing troops, such a dense artillery salvo has a limited killing intensity for the Liukou. It's just that the blow to the morale of the rogues is extremely powerful and terrifying.

A group of enemy troops who were originally marching hard in the wind and sand were suddenly attacked by the Tang Army's head-on artillery fire, and the huge panic caused by it was extremely contagious, so that the entire attacking army formation suddenly had a lot of chaos in an otherwise orderly state.

At this time, the supervising teams of the Qingshun and Qing armies who were in charge immediately rushed forward with a roar, ordering them not to take up their posts without permission, but to continue to rush forward, taking advantage of the interval between the adjustment of the Tang army's artillery, and quickly rushed to the moat.

Because, as long as they reach the moat, the artillery of the Tang army is too close to the range, and it is difficult to carry out follow-up fire, so that the Qingshun and Shun armies can smoothly lay the plank on the moat, and they can immediately approach the siege car and start to hit the city gate. At the same time, the rows of siege ladders that resemble giant centipedes can continue to approach the city walls and begin to launch ant-attached attacks on the walls.

It's just that at this moment, the second round of shelling began again.

"Bang bang bang! ……”

In the sound of the cannon that could almost burst the eardrums, the golden fire flared up, and hundreds of black and red-hot iron bullets roared out.

This second round of firing also caused terrible damage and an increasingly great panic, and nearly 1,000 enemy soldiers were killed or wounded, and there was no longer the ability to attack. The rogue soldiers, who were already shaken in their hearts, were deeply afraid of such an almost absolute death and terror, and many began to retreat almost instinctively. The entire siege of the city of the rogues and the Qing army formation, all the same.

For a while, the formation of the two armies of Qingshun was unstable, the people's hearts were in turmoil, and the speed of the impact and advance was greatly reduced in an instant. Everyone's face was full of surprise and panic.

At this critical moment, the overseers of Dolgon and Li Zicheng immediately came in handy.

They roared and rushed forward, slaughtering the rout soldiers who dared to retreat on the spot, and in the rolling dust, one deserter after another was quickly hacked to death by the wielding sabers, and after slashing nearly 100 people one after another, the retreat momentum of the two armies was slightly stopped.

"Don't run away! The mouth of the moat of the enemy city is near, as long as you rush to the front, it is a victory! The Overseers roared hoarsely at the panicked attacking team, and the cheering drum formations behind the two armies were even more deafening and deafening, almost drowning out the sound of the artillery.

Therefore, the soldiers of the two armies, under such coercion, could only rise up bravely, stubbornly, resist the siege equipment, and strode towards the moat not far away.