For the battle of Zaoyang, it can be said that it is lackluster, although Zhang Yingyuan, the main general of the army led by Yang Sichang, can also be regarded as a more capable general, but that is also compared with whom, Zhang Yingyuan once defeated Zhang Xianzhong, and also forced to defeat many righteous troops, but this does not mean that he is Luo Li's opponent.

And the Ming army in the south, if compared with the official army in the north, it can be said that it is much worse, but the Guanning army in the north has more or less had a few tricks with Jiannu, but the official army in the south is at most fighting and killing with the rebels, although the organizational ability is stronger than the ordinary rebels, and the cold can win a few battles, but it is really not too strong, as long as there is a little slack, it will be surrounded by a large number of rebels concentrated forces, so it will also be defeated by the peasant army from time to time. Therefore, the combat effectiveness of the officers and troops in the south can be said to be weak and powerful on the whole.

And as their opponent is the Xingtian Army, which has defeated the official army and even the Tartar soldiers all over the ground by them, although the number of officers and troops under Yang Sichang is more than twice that of Luo Li's subordinates, but it is not the opponent of Luo Li's Xingtian Army at all.

After Luo Li led his troops to Zaoyang, Zhang Yingyuan also fought hard to lead his troops to meet the battle, but the officers and troops led by him could be said to be crushed at the touch of a button in front of the Xingtian Army, and they had no power to fight back at all.

Originally, there was a line of officers and troops under the leadership of the Ming general Zhang Ling, who were ordered to flank the flank of the Xingtian Army, but before they could kill the flank of the Xingtian Army, the main force led by Zhang Yingyuan had collapsed, so Zhang Ling was so frightened that he turned around and ran, and he didn't fight with the Xingtian Army at all, so he led his soldiers and horses, and rushed towards Suizhou.

And Zhang Yingyuan was still trying to save the defeat, gather troops and horses to fight again, but when he saw Zhang Ling's troops fleeing, the officers and soldiers who had already collapsed were even more panicked, and no one had the heart to fight again, and the angry Zhang Yingyuan killed a few fugitive generals, but he still failed to recover the decline.

Luo Li this guy has to be unforgiving, although the killed Yang Sichang was defeated and fled, but he is not good at giving up, except for leaving part of the troops to keep an eye on Zaoyang City, the rest of the troops waved their troops to cover the killing, and the officers and soldiers who killed directly fell into the water, seized the armor, the soldiers' tents, the baggage, and the grain and straw were innumerable, and they were chased and killed for a day before they were able to collect the troops and return to Zaoyang City.

Poor Yang Sichang couldn't recite any spell when he encountered the Xingtian Army, this time he completely understood the horror of the Xingtian Army, and at the same time thoroughly understood the weakness and incompetence of the official army, in the face of such an opponent, he also understood the helplessness and pain of those colleagues who were enemies of the Xingtian Army before.

In order to escape for his life, he was already very ill, and even the cart had to be thrown off, and he was put on horseback by the guards, and tied him to the saddle with a rope, which desperately rescued him from the battlefield and sent him to Suizhou City.

After arriving in Suizhou City, after Yang Sichang was taken off horseback, he couldn't even stand, and he couldn't even stand even if he was sick in Suizhou City.

After Luo Li defeated Yang Sichang's department, he didn't give up, he didn't bring much artillery, but he captured some artillery from the officers and troops under Yang Sichang, so he simply took the opportunity to act, set up these captured cannons in Zaoyang City, aimed at the head of Zaoyang City, and threatened that if Zaoyang City did not surrender, then he would bombard Zaoyang City, and after opening Zaoyang City, he would definitely kill the officials and defenders in Zaoyang City!

As a result, after the magistrate and the defenders in Zaoyang City saw the prestige of the Xingtian Army, they saw the fate of a large number of officers and soldiers led by Yang Sichang, where did they dare to fight Luo Li to the death! So immediately Zhixian was so frightened that he peed on his crotch, regardless of the order to open the city to surrender, and although some people in the city obstructed the surrender, but the limited officers and soldiers in the city did not do it, and immediately suppressed those who tried to stop the surrender, and opened the gate of Zaoyang City.

In this battle, Luo Li gave full play to the tactics of the Xingtian Army, and several battalions of the Xingtian Army staggered to cover the defense line of the official army, and fired a volley of fire like a dense shower, so that the officers and soldiers had no power to fight back, completely showing the terrible nature of the Xingtian Army.

In fact, this can't all be blamed on the weakness of the officers and soldiers, after all, whether it is tactics, or equipment, or even tactical thinking, the Xingtian Army has surpassed the various armies of the world by at least one generation, the use of the Xingtian military array to this year, the generals of the various departments can be said to have perfected the realm, and the officers and troops who are completely armed with the ideas of the old-style army cannot be their opponents at all, not to mention that the morale of the Xingtian Army is extremely high, and the military discipline is also very strict, and they are not afraid of death. That's hell to go.

Therefore, Luo Licai perfectly staged a good show of defeating Yang Sichang in Zaoyang, and additionally included Zaoyang into the pocket of the Xingtian Army.

At the same time, the battle between Xiangyang and the banks of the Tang River also started at the same time, and the arranged heavy artillery team of the Xingtian Army fired the first cannon to storm Xiangyang on the southwest slope of Xiangyang City, and then dozens of heavy artillery guns roared like shaking the mountain, and smashed the shells into Xiangyang City like hail.

In order to break the will of the defenders in Xiangyang City to resist, these heavy artillery are not all aimed at the city wall to fire, from time to time will be towards several important targets in the city, a few cannons from a long distance, after the cannonballs fall in the city, suddenly the houses in many places in the city are collapsed, even the prefect Yamen of Xiangyang Mansion was also hit by two bullets, and a corner of the lobby was blown down, as for the largest building complex in Xiangyang City, the Xiangwang Mansion in the southeast corner of Xiangyang City, a few heavy artillery of the Xingtian Army, focus on taking care of there, The cannonball collapsed a side hall of Xiangwang's mansion on the spot, and one of Xiangwang's concubines was also buried in the ruins on the spot, and was crushed to death under the beams of the house.

Of course, as the key target of the artillery bombardment, it was the city wall, and several Hongyi cannons laid by the defenders on the city wall were destroyed not long after the artillery battle began, but their counterattack was pitiful to death, just a few cannons were fired at the hillside, and the soldiers were driven off the city wall by intensive artillery fire.

The condescending artillery bombardment of the Xingtian Army was undoubtedly a nightmare for the defenders, and they did not dare to send people to climb the city wall to defend it, for fear of forcing the officers and soldiers to be anxious and rebel in the city, so from the beginning of the shelling, the officers and soldiers in the southwest corner of the city wall all escaped from the city wall, so that a large number of sappers concentrated in the southwest corner of Xiangyang City were able to transport all kinds of materials to the edge of the city river outside Xiangyang City, and began to build a pontoon bridge on the city river by using these wooden boats, planks and other things.

Fierce as a tiger also desperately sent people to try to burn these pontoon bridges, first with rockets, and then with oil cans to smash, the Xingtian army tried several times, the pontoon bridges were burned, and finally in desperation, the Xingtian army used the local people who came to help the war to carry soil bags to spread on the pontoon bridge, and poured water on the bridge deck, and also sent a large number of firecrackers to hunt and kill the officers and soldiers who rushed out of the city to try to burn the pontoon bridge by the river, and then the pontoon bridge was built.

Generally speaking, although the officers and troops have completely lost their initiative in field operations, they still have a certain ability to defend the city, and under the leadership of the general army, the officers and troops in the city still exert a certain combat effectiveness, and to a certain extent, they still create some trouble for the attacking Xingtian army.

However, under the condition that the Xingtian Army completely has the advantage of firepower, all that Fierce Ruhu and Liu Shijie can do is to create some trouble for the Xingtian Army, but they can't fundamentally curb the offensive of the Xingtian Army, but every time they counterattack, they will make their subordinates suffer heavy casualties, and finally force them to give up this counterattack to prevent the Xingtian Army from erecting pontoon bridges on the city river.

Xiao Tianjian was also really angry this time, and the order to Huang Shengqiang was that as long as the city did not surrender for a day, the artillery team would not stop firing for a day until the city wall was destroyed or the defenders in the city collapsed.

Dozens of six-pounder and more than six-pounder guns began to shell day and night, and the power of the six-pounder and eight-pounder guns was still limited, but this time Xiao Tianjian brought in a few twelve-pounder and twenty-four-pounder Hongyi cannons captured from the Guanning army, but they exerted great power.

More than a dozen catties and twenty catties of cannonballs whistling down on the city wall, each cannon is like triggering a miniature earthquake in general, the city wall will immediately be removed from a large area of city bricks, even the rammed earth city wall exposed below will also appear a big pit, under repeated blows, soon the city wall in the southwest of the city will be stripped naked, exposing a large area of the core of the rammed earth city wall, under the repeated bombardment of heavy artillery, the rammed earth city wall will begin to collapse in a large area.

The shelling lasted for five days, and Huang Shengqiang was also ruthless, and he was stunned to break several six-pounder guns and eight-pounder guns, and even a 24-pounder cannon was blown up, killing and wounding many gunners on the spot.

This is also the first time that the Xingtian Army has used so many heavy artillery to attack the city, although Xiangyang City is strong enough, but it can't stand so many heavy artillery repeatedly shelling a point, on the fifth day, the city wall finally began to be unstoppable, there were a large number of cracks, and even holes, everyone knows that this section of the city wall can no longer hold on.

However, the fierce tiger still did not give up in the end, when he saw that this section of the city wall could not hold up, he cleared a number of houses in the city, used the buildings of the houses, and the people in the city, forced them to build a section of the pass wall in the city, forming a rough inner urn city, although it was very hasty, but it still played a good defensive role, a large number of officers and soldiers were also transferred to the south corner of the city, Chen stationed behind this temporary pass wall in the city, and got a lot of oil, rockets and other things, A large number of archers were arranged, and he personally supervised the battle, waiting at any time to stop the Xingtian army from destroying the city walls, and then rushed into the city.

(Chapter 5: Is this speed of renewal cool, brethren?) It's a pity that you may be cool, but I'm almost tired from the cold wind! Hehe! No more nonsense, we have to keep working, and there are two more chapters of tasks! ）