The first day of the Lunar New Year in the second year of Xuanping.

On this day, after the sky brightened up in Liuzhou City, Guangxi, the scene in the city looked the same as before, and the streets had not changed much as before, but unlike usual, the people were hiding at home and did not dare to open the door at all.

The entire city of Liuzhou is in a panic.

Outside the city, the puppet Tang thief army gathered, and they were actively preparing to attack the city, which was known to the soldiers and civilians of the whole city.

Therefore, even if this day is the traditional Spring Festival, there is no festive atmosphere in Liuzhou City, even if it was the Chinese New Year's Eve dinner last night, it was just a casual one, whether it was ordinary people or those gentry families.

Inside and outside the city, there is no festive atmosphere for the Spring Festival!

As for the civil and military officials in Liuzhou City, they couldn't even eat, because as long as they were not blind, they could see that this time the pseudo-Tang thief army was coming, and the most important thing was that the imperial court reinforcements they expected never came.

They also got the news before the arrival of the puppet Tang thief army, the governor Wei Yan personally led the 8,000 reinforcements, which had been defeated at the Anjia Wharf in Xiangzhou half a month ago, and finally only more than 2,000 soldiers and horses fled along the river in embarrassment, and now the Guangxi governor Wei Yan has rebuilt the camp in Wuxuan, claiming to use all means to prevent the puppet Tang thief army from advancing east along the river!

They don't know if Wei Yan can block the eastward advance of the puppet Tang thief army in Wuxuan, but they know that they are about to finish.

Because Wei Yan was defeated, and then retreated to Wuxuan, and he could only defend passively, and did not dare to launch a counterattack!

What does this mean? This means that the adults above are already not hopeful about the counterattack on Liuzhou in the short term, and the war between the imperial court and the official army, at least the official army in the Liangguang region and the puppet Tang thief army, will enter a lasting state.

This is also equivalent to the adults who have given up the capital city of Liuzhou and the more than 30,000 soldiers and civilians in the city.

Affected by this, the atmosphere in the city was not very good, whether it was the ordinary people, the gentry or even the soldiers in the army, they all maintained an extremely pessimistic attitude towards the defense of Liuzhou.

Even the most optimistic people don't think they can hold Liuzhou City, at most they just hold on for half a month or a month.

Although they have 10,000 troops in the city, many people know that the regular army in the city is only more than 6,000 people, and the remaining 6,000 or 7,000 people are all young men recruited from nearby before the puppet Tang thief army came and the young men recruited from the city after the thief army besieged the city.

However, the puppet Tang thief army outside the city has been more or less discovered, the main force is the first infantry brigade of the puppet Tang thief army, and this unit is the first-class elite unit in the puppet Tang thief army, which once defeated as many as 50,000 or 60,000 Guizhou officials and troops in Guizhou.

Although the other puppet Tang thief army is weaker, they are also regular troops, for example, what garrison army in the thief army is the Ming army, no matter how bad these soldiers are, they are stronger than the young and strong, and I heard that once the official army's troops arrived at the side of the puppet Tang thief army, they immediately became fierce and not afraid of death, and their combat power increased a lot out of thin air!

These traitors, when they fought for my Ming Dynasty, I didn't see them working so hard, but after this betrayal to the side of the puppet Tang Dynasty, they became so violent, a group of ungrateful guys!

The puppet Tang thief army outside the city is so strong, and their own troops are insufficient, and half of them are young and strong, under the strong attack of the puppet Tang thief army, it is very good to be able to hold out for half a month.

But what's the use of half a month, a month? They had been surrounded by the puppet Tang thief army for more than a month, but what was the use?

It's useless, the reinforcements still haven't come, and their own side still can't hold it, and they can't even break through.

The hope of not seeing the hope of victory, and the pessimistic mood is spreading throughout the city!

On the first day of the Lunar New Year, the soldiers and civilians in the city had not yet eaten breakfast, and the rumbling cannons sounded outside the city, and the soldiers and civilians in the city were no longer curious about the cannons of the puppet Tang thief army.

The last time the puppet Tang thief army attacked Liuzhou City, they also fired cannons like this, and they also expected this, the only thing to worry about is not to be so unlucky to be hit by the shells of the puppet Tang thief army.

However, soon, the people in the city found that today's shelling was unusual, because the cannonade was much denser, and the people also saw that many officers and soldiers were hurrying to the city wall, and they all looked nervous.

Through these circumstances, some smart people have already noticed that the pseudo-Tang thief army has been waiting for so many days, and it is finally about to start attacking Liuzhou!

So, on the first day of the Lunar New Year, inside and outside Liuzhou City, the rumbling sound of cannons replaced firecrackers, echoing in the sky above Liuzhou City, and it kept ringing, as if it would never stop.

In order to reduce casualties during the attack, and also because of the new batch of ammunition supply, Hao Bonian ordered the artillery unit not to save ammunition, but to fight hard!

Although these artillery pieces are small-caliber bowls with a range of less than 100 meters, if these artillery pieces are not eliminated or suppressed, when the troops launch a charge, they will still bring great casualties to the infantry of the Tang Army.

At the same time as the shelling, Hao Bonian did not forget to take other methods, such as blasting!

On the one hand, there are sneaky tunnels, and on the other hand, open-minded digging zigzag trenches approaching the city walls.

At the same time, he did not hesitate to use a lot of manpower to build a lot of arrow tower cars that could be moved, and then made many shield cars that could resist the Ming army's bows and arrows, handguns, and bowl guns, as well as huge shields made of heavy wooden planks, leather, and thick cotton.

All this is to destroy, and then conquer the walls of Liuzhou City!

In the battle of the fortified city in this era, the battle for the city wall represents the victory or defeat, and if the city wall is taken, then this Liuzhou city is in the bag for the Tang Dynasty, and if the city wall cannot be taken, then the Ming army in Liuzhou City will be able to continue to resist stubbornly.

This massive shelling lasted two days!

There is no way, who let the Ming army in Liuzhou City capture it like this, and it has not been able to come out, and even the artillery on the head of the city has been temporarily withdrawn, but it is just a bowl cannon of a hundred catties or even less than a hundred catties, which can be moved up or down the city at any time.

Because he has not been able to successfully eliminate the Ming artillery units on the city, Hao Bonian can only change his strategy in the end, and use artillery, especially 800 catties of heavy artillery, to bombard a certain section of the Ming army's city wall, trying to collapse a section of the Ming army's city wall.

At the same time, the excavation of the tunnel is also relatively smooth, but unfortunately, the Ming army in the city is not lacking in smart people, and soon found that the pseudo-Tang thief army was digging the tunnel, and carried out targeted operations on the spot, sending dead soldiers to carry out a lot of gunpowder for blasting.

Not to mention that the tunnels were not dug successfully, and a small number of soldiers who were digging the tunnels were killed and wounded.

Compared with the progress of tunnel tactics, there is no loss, but the trench excavation and advance are much smoother!

Because the purpose of this kind of trench is not to go directly under the city wall and then blast the city wall, its purpose is to allow the besieging soldiers to reach the city wall safely.

And this zigzag trench also has a good defensive ability, if the top is covered with a layer of wooden soil, the Ming army's bows and arrows and even bowl cannons are difficult to threaten the soldiers advancing in the trench.

Moreover, every time the Tang Dynasty division dug a trench, it would send troops accordingly, and the tactics of the Ming army trying to send dead soldiers to destroy the trenches did not work at all, because these dead soldiers had no way to get close at all, and even if they did, they could not cause any actual damage to the trenches.

The trenches of later generations can withstand even the bombardment of more than 150 mm heavy artillery, although the trenches of the Tang Dynasty are a little worse, but they are not only one or two bags of gunpowder can be destroyed.

After the trench tactics went smoothly, Hao Bonian simply rebuilt the tunnel tactics, but this time he did not expect to dig the tunnels under the city walls, but used them as a tactic to support the trenches, to quickly and safely transport troops to the front line of the trenches.

Artillery bombardment, trenches, tunnels and other tactics were implemented, and the Ming army in the city was finally unable to stop the gradual advance of the Tang Dynasty.

Seeing that his trench had been dug less than thirty meters away from the Ming army's city wall, Hao Bonian was extremely pleased.

Although civil engineering is time-consuming, it is very effective in reducing your own casualties, so that your siege infantry do not have to run hundreds of meters under the fire of the puppet thief army, and can directly reach the city walls through tunnels and trenches, and then launch a battle to attack the city.

As for the moat of Liuzhou City, it was originally quite troublesome, but Fang Dongquan came up with a plan, directly excavated a small canal, and then raided and blasted one night to dig the moat connected to Liuzhou City, and it took several days to finally drain the water of the moat of Liuzhou City.

Now, Liuzhou City has nothing to stop its own army from attacking!

After the trenches and tunnels on the front line were prepared, and the various siege equipment made by the troops were also prepared, on the seventh day of the Lunar New Year, Hao Bonian issued an order for the whole army to attack!

On the same day, the Tang Dynasty Wang's division invested more than 2,000 troops at one time in the first attack, and the artillery of the Second Artillery Battalion carried out intensive rapid fire, so that the barrels of the artillery were all red, and they were almost blown up.

Although this attack failed, resulting in more than 200 casualties of the 3rd Garrison Brigade participating in the attack, Hao Bonian did not care, although this first attack participated in a large number of troops, but strictly speaking, it was still just a tentative attack, in order to verify whether the siege tactics were feasible.

And this time the tentative attack made Hao Bonian see the tactical feasibility, and at noon that day, Hao Bonian launched a real general attack!

This time, it was no longer the garrison that acted as the main force of the siege, but the troops of the 1st Infantry Brigade!

Before the war, Hao Bonian personally lectured to the officers above the rank of the First Infantry Brigade, saying: The matter of loyalty to the king of the king, now it is time for us to fight to the death for His Majesty's loyalty!

Today, let's use guns and blood to take Liuzhou City and lay the foundation of the Tang Dynasty!

The Tang Dynasty is invincible!