The whistling sound of shells pierced the thick smoke and fog, and the roaring explosions shook the fortress, which once seemed impregnable, had completely changed its appearance during the five days of shelling, and there were broken walls everywhere, and the thick stone walls were so full of holes that it was hard to believe that all this was caused by artillery.

For the Qing army in the fortress, they had to endure the damage caused by artillery, and for the past five days, they had been waiting, waiting for the Ming army to attack, and in the smoke cloud of explosions, some of them had even wanted to jump out of the Ming army to fight a good fight, instead of staying here and waiting for death.

Whether it is Fort A or Fort B, or Fort C and Fort Ding in the rear, these four forts that were originally horns of each other have now become pieces of ruins, guarding here, trying to block the Qing army attacking by the Ming army, under the baptism of artillery, their courage is running out little by little.

"Caught a dozen more deserters!"

Standing in the basement of the fortress, hearing the report of his subordinates, Cai Yurong raised his eyebrows and said coldly.

"Chop!"

When the explosion overhead came, Cai Yurong said again.

"Pass their heads one by one, and tell those people what will happen if they don't serve the court wholeheartedly."

Cai Yurong, as the chief military officer of Xingxingxia Fortress, insisted because he knew that he had no way out, he was a Han army banner, he was a traitor, even if he surrendered, it was very likely that waiting for him would be a dead end, so he would not surrender, he would not surrender, and he would not tolerate the surrender of his subordinates. Even, this is the reason why the imperial court appointed Cai Yurong as the chief soldier of Xingxingxia. Because the court knew that he would not surrender. In private, I don't know how many Manchu dignitaries would be grateful to the Ming Dynasty, because the Ming Dynasty's pursuit and zero tolerance for traitors forced those Han people in the Qing Dynasty to have no way out, and they were afraid that they would be punished as traitors.

Soon, the severed head spread inside the fortress, and the Qing soldiers who were struggling under the artillery fire all looked sad, knowing that they had no way out. In the end, he just smiled bitterly and comforted himself.

"Hey, don't think about running away, the Han people won't let us go anyway."

Despite saying this, there are still many people muttering to themselves.

"But, but I'm also Han......"

"Han, you are also a traitor......"

Li Guozhu, who was lying in the fortress with his ears covered, listened to the muttering in his ear, and just as he wanted to speak, a burst of choking smoke and dust rushed into his wide open mouth, choking him and coughing, coughing and even tears flowed out.

Now he couldn't hear what was being said around him, except that he could hear the almost frantic cries of some people. This cry to the sound of explosions is miserable and terrifying.

"I'm Han, don't kill me, don't kill me......"

There was a person who was crying there as if he was crazy, crying and kowtowing, snot and tears flowed out, looking at his pitiful appearance, no one around him laughed at him, just looked at him, with pity in his eyes, at this moment, he saw Xu Zong come over, he looked at the man and snorted.

"Useless waste!"

As he spoke, he struck the man on the back of the head with his scabbard, and the man fainted, and then he spat in the man's face and cursed.

"What a useless thing!"

Then Mr. Xu turned his head to look at the people around him and said.

"Qing Laosi, drag this dog down, lock it up, if he is crazy again, he will cut it directly!"

Just as Xu Jiang's words fell, an explosion interrupted his words, and he looked back to see only a figure running through the misty dust.

"Minggou - Minggou is coming! ……”

Finally, after five days of shelling, the Ming army launched an attack, Li Guozhu and the people around him picked up the gun in their hands, just when he wanted to aim, the attacking Ming army also found them, they immediately leaned on the obstacles around them, aimed at the Qing army in the ruins, and shot in the smoke.

A burst of gunfire in the loud explosion of the explosion, it was difficult to attract the attention of the side, and it also hid the frightened shouts, Li Guozhu saw that those Ming troops were different from them, they would always rely on the ruins around them, approaching step by step, neither fast nor slow.

Soon, when the distance was very close, a soldier of the Ming army leaned out halfway and threw a grenade at them with all his might.

"Grenades!"

Xu Jiang always shouted in horror, and the people withdrew to the rear, and the people around him saw that the general had withdrawn, and they also retreated back, and those Ming soldiers naturally did not let go of this opportunity, and after a bang, more than a dozen people fell. At this moment, the smoke cloud from the grenade explosion blocked their view, and Li Guozhu hurriedly took this opportunity to flee to the rear.

At this moment, there was a burst of shouts in front of the fortress. Li Guozhu saw that the Ming troops had already charged, they rushed into the fortress, and then stabbed the brothers who had not had time to flee in the dust and fog with bayonets.

"Don't, don't kill me, I'm ......"

Before the man could shout, the shouting stopped abruptly, on the battlefield, no one would care who was the Han and who was the bannerman, and there would always be only the enemy for the enemy who was fighting.

But even so, in the smoke, there were still people crying unwillingly.

"I'm Han—Han! Don't kill me, I surrender ......"

Their shouts seemed a little desperate, like the last straw, and many people always tried to save their lives through such shouts, but what they didn't expect was that such shouts were exchanged for bayonets.

In the dust and fog of the explosion, those Ming troops who couldn't see their figures clearly, desperately stabbed the nearest enemy with bayonets, those Qing troops who either fled or resisted, some shouted there, some resisted with bayonets, of course, more people fled to the rear as if they fled, although they knew that if they fled like this, the fortress would soon be occupied by the Ming army, but they always felt that if they fled like this, there would always be a chance to live, and if they resisted, it might be a dead end.

However, there are also some people who calmed down and shot at the Ming army in the smoke of gunpowder, compared to the rifled guns used by the Ming army, the Qing army's crosshairs using flintlock smoothbore guns looked very poor, and every time, when Li Guozhu turned back to shoot, it felt like God blessed the Ming dog, and it was difficult for the bullet to hit the target. On the contrary, the guns shot by the Ming army were like having eyes, and they would always hit the people around him constantly, and sometimes they would even swish over his head.

"Damn, it's failed again......"

After the gun was empty, Li Guozhu hurriedly hid under the wall and began to load the gun with gunpowder.

At this moment, suddenly a warm Jiangxi splashed on his face, and when he looked up, he saw that it was Qing Laosi, whose head was half broken like a watermelon, and the person fell to the ground, and his body was still twitching from time to time. ，

"This grandson, if he dies, he still drags people down......"

Li Guozhu scolded like this in his mouth, his eyes looked left and right, and then someone shouted.

"Let's run! ……”

Someone pushed him on the shoulder, it was Wang Fa.

"Run, brother, if we continue like this, we will have to die here! No one can live. ”

Live?

Li Guozhu looked left and right, looking at the frightened faces, listening to the explosion in his ears, panting and opening his mouth to swallow the dust. From time to time, the sound of firebolts, shouts, and grenade explosions could be heard in the distance.

At this time, is it running and running where?

"Run, you kid has a dream, as soon as you show up and go out, you will definitely die!"

"yes, we can't run, we should go to the basement!"

Mu Tianha shouted loudly.

"Just go into the basement! At least I can save my life first......"

Li Guozhu vaguely realized that he could not run under the shelling, and he could not escape, there was no possibility of escaping now, this would be full of Ming troops, those Ming troops did not care whether they were deserters or not, when the time came, they would definitely be stabbed with bayonets and beaten with guns, and now if they want to survive, the only chance is to escape to the basement.

"yes, run there first!"

As soon as this thought came to him, he immediately ran through the ruins towards the entrance to the basement, surrounded by gunpowder smoke covering his movements, and the others fled towards the basement with him.

No one wants to die, everyone wants to live.

Finally, in the smoke cloud of the explosion, after escaping into the basement, despite the sound of explosions and guns coming from behind him from time to time, Li Guozhu still breathed a sigh of relief, he knew that he survived, at least not now.

When he entered the basement, he unexpectedly saw Mr. Xu, he didn't know when he had already hid here, Mr. Xu was still fierce and vicious, this would be a panicked look, he leaned against the wall, didn't say a word, and most of the people around him looked like this.

"Li Guozhu, when you came in, how was the situation outside?"

"How? Everywhere there are bright ...... Ming army, I estimate that by night, we will let the Ming army occupy here, and when the time comes, we will ......"

Li Guozhu, who originally wanted to explain the dog, changed his words when the words came to his mouth.

"Oh, you said that we are all Han Chinese, if we surrender, will they let us live?"

Xu Jiang, who leaned his head against the root of the wall, listened to this, and just muttered.

"We may be able to save our lives, but when the time comes, we will definitely be exiled to the South Seas."

"That's it, when you get there, it's also nine deaths......

"But, it's better than having death and not being alive......"

Big guy, your words made Li Guozhu silent. He just sat at the base of the wall, his eyes fixed on the entrance to the underground room, and there was only one thought left in his mind, what if the Ming army came in?

Just then, something fell down the stairs, and someone shouted in terror.

"Grenade ......"