Hundreds of iron lumps were hurled down from the walls. The Qing soldiers were accustomed to beating wood, rolling stones, and even boiling water and fierce fire oil. I haven't seen anyone throwing iron lumps yet. And it's so small that it doesn't hurt people at all.

Soon, Ao Bai and his subordinates knew that the Ming army on the city wall was not powerless, playing and throwing around. Because these iron bumps exploded after falling into the crowd, the power did not seem to be large, but after the explosion, fragments were scattered everywhere like flying swords, so that those Qing soldiers who were not at the explosion point were seriously injured. The effect of a round of palm thunder is actually similar to the effect of the salvo in the face of cavalry for the first time. The arrogance of the Qing army was quickly defeated. The Qing soldiers who had crossed the moat fled in a hurry, and the consequence of exposing their backs to the musketeers was that they could easily eat peanuts. The underside of the walls was emptied again. The two sides continued to fire bows and muskets. The two sides continued like this for another hour, and in the middle, Ao Bai organized his subordinates to try again, and the result proved with flesh and blood that the palm thunder of the defenders on the Gaoyang city wall was sufficient. In less than two hours, the siege battle did not have the previous sense of fluency in one go, and the momentum of the cavalry could not be fought at all, not to mention, and the casualties were nearly 150 people. This is unacceptable to Aobai. If he knew that two of the three times the Qing army had been in contact with Yang Hongzhang before this, he would have been annihilated.

After spending the first day peacefully, everyone in Gaoyang City did not relax but proceeded in an orderly manner according to Yang Hongzhang's deployment. After the initial panic, Xiang Siwen no longer seemed to be thinking about how to leave Gaoyang, but instead began to make suggestions. When Ao Bai appeared outside Gaoyang City with an extremely depressed mood after being reprimanded by Haoge, he found that the defenders of Gaoyang had given him a lot of surprises, and there were traps of different depths and sizes around the periphery of those piers. Aobai, who had originally planned to dismount and fight on foot, was not affected by these, but he also admired the tenacity of the Gaoyang defenders.

And when the Qing army cautiously relied on the cover of the pier to approach the moat, they found that the moat, which had dried up, had been dug out of two small pits on it, although the pit was not big, but if they wanted to charge together, they would be affected. And the ensuing battle once again made Wang Lenian, who had complained about Yang Hongzhang's tossing people, finally realize that Yang Hongzhang's every move did not seem to be without purpose. Because it was these two completely inconspicuous pits that not only successfully prevented the Qing army from storming the city wall en masse, but also threw the palm thunder and the Qing army was delayed for a while, which was enough time for the archers to shoot once. This shooting also meant that the casualties of the Qing army increased, and the two sides went back and forth all morning but did not develop in the direction that Ao Bai wanted.

In fact, the situation of the Gaoyang defenders is not optimistic. As the flintlock ammunition continued to deplete, Yang Hongzhang had asked all the musketeers to control the firing speed, either the Qing army tried to storm the city gates and walls, or basically used the arquebuses stockpiled in the Gaoyang County Yali. In this way, although the Qing army successfully paid the price of nearly 100 people in one morning, at least more than 200 people on his side were injured by arrows to varying degrees. The speed of casualties made Wang Lenian's heart tremble. But it was also a helpless move, because Yang Hongzhang told him that the palm thunder he brought was almost the same.

This should have been expected, although Yang Hongzhang and the others were well-equipped, they were only there to pick up people, and they did not plan to fight in Gaoyang for a long time. It was impossible to carry a large amount of ammunition on a long march. Xia Dongwei, who was watching the battle, offered to let his men take over the archers in the afternoon. Yang Hongzhang thought about it and agreed. After all, the archers who defended the city for these two days were the most tired. Moreover, the Tianxiong Army has complete armor and has a certain psychological advantage in attacking and shooting. Sure enough, after the Tianxiong army was replaced as archers in the afternoon, although the fire of muskets was further reduced, the casualties of the Qing army continued to increase. Ao Bai had no choice but to hastily withdraw his troops. In the two-day siege battle, at least nearly 300 Qing soldiers lost their combat effectiveness. What awaited him must have been Hauge's fury.

On the third day, it was no longer Ao Bai who came to attack the city, but Prince Su Haoge himself. After summing up the results of the first two days of worship, Hauge decided to divide his forces to harass the other gates. What Hauge didn't expect was that the east gate greeted him with 200 flintlock pistols, and the west gate was 200 heavenly heroes. It turned out that in Yang Hongzhang's plan, today was a bitter battle, but Yang Hongzhang did not plan to let the sailors and cavalry of the Tianxiong Army bring him fight at the north gate, but took turns to rest as a backup for the east and west gates. Even those green forests from Bazhou, who could ride horses, were arranged by Yang Hongzhang to the south gate. These men were only responsible for retreating from their respective gates, and if the enemy retreated, they rested to refresh themselves for the night's movements. Yang Hongzhang's arrangement made Wang Lenian very dissatisfied, and even quarreled directly, thinking that Yang Hongzhang sacrificed Gaoyang's local strong men in order to preserve his strength. Yang Hongzhang cannot deny this. Because today the enemy will definitely attack with all his might, and if all the elites are exhausted, then wait for the slaughter of the Qing army the next day. Of course, the most important thing is the importance of knowing Gaoyang's location, Yang Hongzhang does not think that when the Qing army has been increasing troops, Gaoyang can always be able to hold on as steadily as the previous two days, so he must surprise his troops.

Hauge's temptation to divide his troops was obviously a big loss. So he decided to immediately gather all his troops and storm the north gate. Three thousand men were scattered outside the northern city wall, less than three miles long, and nearly a thousand of them were concentrated near the city gates. It's just that what Haoge and Aobai didn't notice was that there were traces of dirt being dug up in the open space between the originally flat piers. However, because of the lessons of the previous two days, all the Qing troops moved forward very carefully, consciously or unintentionally avoiding the loose soil. It's just that this makes them pay a heavier price in the next place. Because almost half of the people entered the pier formation, and finally someone stepped on it firmly, and with a boom, the person was directly flipped into the air, and before he fell, his flesh and blood were blurred. This is not over, many people on the side were frightened and panicked and tried to dodge, but the result was a series of explosions. Then in the stunned eyes of the Gaoyang defenders, the Qing army panicked, and one of Yang Hongzhang's trump cards, which had been planted last night, was ignited one after another, and the explosions made the Qing army even more confused, and they retreated in a hurry, so more mines were detonated. Yang Hongzhang then ordered the arquebuses on the city wall to be fired together, creating a tense atmosphere.

Boom, boom...... Not to mention the Qing soldiers who were at the scene, even Wang Lenian, Xiang Siwen and others who were standing on the city wall were shocked and their bodies shook. You must know that this is a large cart of gunpowder harvested by Yang Hongzhang's sneak attack on the transport team in the river some time ago. Most of them are buried outside the north gate, and a small number of others are arranged at the east and west gates. When the dust settled, there was a mess outside the city, and almost all the open spaces in the middle of the piers left the severed fingers and stumps of the Qing soldiers. A rough estimate is that at least two or three hundred people were killed directly in the massive explosion of landmines, and those injured will only be known after Hauge has finished counting. Just behind the Dunzi Formation, Haorge and Ao Bai witnessed this tragic situation with their own eyes. It was only at this moment that Hauge believed why the previous two days of worship were so sloppy.

Hauge didn't give up, though, muttering to Ao Bai for a while before ordering the team to retreat and recuperate. Ao Bai led his men with a bitter face to find spears and sticks. Hauge's approach is simple. Since the mines planted by the Ming army are triggered mines, they should be cleared first. In this era, there were no metal detectors, so they had to use stupid methods. Haoge's method was to let his subordinates bring over a lot of war horses, let the war horses go in front, and the Qing soldiers used long wooden sticks in the back to make all suspicious places on the ground.

This method really worked, and after paying the lives of forty war horses and more than a dozen Qing soldiers, Hauge could basically be sure that the land in front of him was safe. Although it took more than three hours to clear the mines. But Hauge decided to continue the siege, even if he didn't eat or sleep, he couldn't leave time for the Ming army to continue laying mines.

Soon, the Qing soldiers slowly entered the dun array again under the personal supervision of Hauge, and then wanted to approach the moat. With the increase in the number of Qing soldiers, coupled with the suppression without flintlock pistols, the casualties of the Ming army on the city wall gradually increased. At Wang Lenian's insistence, the Ming army chose to hide. Occasionally fight back in a completely safe situation. Then, when the Qing soldiers tried to get close to the city wall, they threw down a batch of palm mines. Despite this, the power of the Qing army's bow and arrow attack did make Yang Hongzhang and others have a more personal experience, and there were almost no people standing on the city wall except for the female wall and the temporary simple wooden shed.

On several occasions, the Qing army successfully stormed the city gate, attacked the city gate, and was hit by heavy blows such as palm thunder and rolling logs before retreating. However, the defenders on the city wall had to pay the price of thirty or forty men each time. Most of them lost their combat effectiveness after being injured and were carried directly to the back for treatment. Fortunately, because of the delay in demining, when the sun was setting, the Qing army had not yet climbed the city wall. The city gate is still in the hands of the Ming army. Looking at the sharply reduced number of people, Wang Lenian's heart was like a knife, and Bi Yang Hongzhang was also uncomfortable. After all, those are all fresh lives, and I almost couldn't help but call Xia Dongwei and Yang Sheng and others over several times.

Watch the Qing army stubbornly storm the city gates wave after wave. The son, who had been standing in front of Xiang Siwen, suddenly asked without a head: "What are the two big cement piers in the middle for?" Is it just for the sake of looking good? ”

Hearing this, Wang Lenian was stunned. Xiang Siwen glanced at his son, then turned to Yang Hongzhang, obviously he also wanted to know the answer. Yang Hongzhang smiled, obviously very surprised that Xiang Siwen's son could be so calm in the face of such a battle situation.

The two cement bunkers standing in the middle of the cement pier array guarding the main road of the city gate are certainly not for fun. Looking at the sun that was about to set, Yang Hongzhang knew that the time had come.