Li Zhizhong is worthy of being a famous general in Western Xia, and it seems that he sent tens of thousands of people to die in two waves, but in fact he was testing the number and attack strength of the imperial defenders of Hohhot.

Although Shi En ordered the imperial soldiers to reduce the intensity of their attacks, so as not to scare away the Tangut people, the imperial side did have a great weakness now, and Li Zhizhong also saw this.

This time, Zhang Shuye's Eighth Army and other corps were all gathered in Taiyuan, the main battlefield, so they could only send Shi En, the commander of the third division under his command, to lead a reorganized division of 10,000 people to Hohhot to support.

In addition to Shi En's 10,000 regular imperial army, Hohhot was originally a patrol army of more than 10,000, because it rarely experienced war, so the combat effectiveness of the patrol army was generally a grade worse than that of the regular army.

Speaking of which, there are less than 20,000 imperial troops in Hohhot, and it is a bit insufficient to defend this big city.

Li Zhizhong divided the Western Xia cavalry under his command into four teams, and in addition to himself sitting on the battlefield in the west, the others attacked the other three sides of Hohhot City.

This move is quite ruthless, because since the Tanguts have divided their troops, the imperial army can only divide their troops to defend, so that there are only three or four thousand soldiers on each city wall.

Half of the regular army climbed the city wall with the patrolmen, and the veterans of the Imperial army said to the patrol recruits around them: "Don't be afraid, hide behind the battlements and shoot, if the enemy reaches the city, then throw grenades!" ”

The patrol soldiers saw the real war this time, and they were inevitably very nervous, and when the veteran talked about grenades, one of the recruits next to him reflexively threw the grenade in his hand into the city.

"Idiot!" The veteran scolded loudly: "If you just throw out a grenade, you will kill three or four fewer Western Xia soldiers in a while, if you dare to do this again, Lao Tzu will let you jump down and pick up the grenade back!" ”

Seeing that these patrols really lacked combat experience, those imperial veterans of the third division had to inspect back and forth on the city walls to guide the recruits to prepare for the enemy.

The veterans let go of their voices and shouted loudly at the people around them: "Everyone remember to hold their positions, except for being seriously injured, you must not let any Western Xia barbarians climb the city wall, if you want to go down, you must work hard, as long as you kill all the Western Xia people, you will have the life to survive, and you can also be promoted to make a fortune, and get the reward of His Majesty the Emperor!" ”

As the war was about to break out, Shi En, the highest general in Hohhot, had also walked out of the tower, and at this time, he had to let his subordinates see him and let the soldiers know that he was with them.

The Western Xia army still followed the original routine, filled in the other three ditches, dragged the rejected horses away, and after resting for a while, finally began the general attack.

Soon the two armies were fiercely strangled together, and at this time, there was no need for the generals to say anything, and the rest was a critical moment for the soldiers of the two armies to compete for equipment and morale.

The battle lasted from noon to evening, and the losses on both sides were very large, and many times the Western Xia army had already climbed the city wall, but in the end it was counterattacked by the imperial army.

At the most difficult moment, even Shi En, the main general of the defenders of Hohhot, had already rushed to the city wall with his sword, which showed the anxiety of the war.

Shi Ennai was the son of Shi Bao, the general of Nanli under the command of the Eight Heavenly Kings Zhihong under Fang La, and I saw him pull out the family heirloom wind splitting knife at his waist and fiercely slash at those Western Xia people who climbed the city wall.

The biggest advantage of the imperial army is the long-range musket, and because of this, the soldiers of the empire rely on weapons and equipment, in fact, if you want to talk about close combat, in fact, the Tanguts are stronger.

The Tangut people braved the rain of bullets from the imperial army and climbed the city walls frantically, and every time they rushed up, the imperial army suffered great losses.

As time passed, the battle in Hohhot continued, and the armies of both sides of the fierce battle were like full bowstrings, ready to collapse at any time.

The casualties of the armies of both countries are very large, and now the victory or defeat is unpredictable, it is just a matter of which side collapses first and changes first.

Li Zhizhong came here with 50,000 elites of Western Xia, and he brought with him all the hopes of the lord Li Qianshun.

There are only more than 20,000 people left in the 50,000-strong army, if you can't capture this city and can't transport enough grain and grass back to Western Xia, then Li Zhizhong will not be speechless to face the lord of the country, and he can only apologize with death.

When a person has no way out, he will burst out with stronger courage and fighting spirit, and Li Zhizhong is like this at this time.

Gathering all the soldiers and generals around him, Li Zhizhong took out the long knife at his waist, pointed to the city in front of him and shouted: "Swear to attack this city to the death!" ”

"Fight to the death to conquer this city!" Seeing that the commander of the army personally led the army to rush towards the city, all the Western Xia soldiers were inspired and attacked again.

Seeing that the Xixia people even the main general and the reserve team came to attack the city, Shi En, who was covered in blood, smiled with satisfaction: "Finally wait for this time, prepare to light the fire!" ”

After hearing the division commander's order, several of the soldiers who had been staying by Shi En's side hurriedly pulled out the signal gun on their waists and shot a red signal flare into the sky.

This signal flare exploded in the dark sky, and after the soldiers of the Imperial Army saw it, they knew the meaning of it, and their hearts were full of boundless fighting intent, but Li Zhizhong stopped and looked at the beautiful fireworks in the sky with a look of horror.

Although Li Zhizhong didn't understand what this signal represented, he knew that the imperial army released the signal at this time, which was definitely not a good thing.

"Boom......" Gunpowder fuses were ignited.

Soon a series of dark red flames broke through the earth, accompanied by a dull explosion, blasting the dirt and the Western Xia soldiers who stepped on it into the air.

Many imperial soldiers standing on the city wall saw that the Tanguts were blown up as high as the city wall, and then torn to pieces by the blast waves, and finally scattered on the land.

At the same time, there were no explosions around Hohhot City, and in the face of this super strong and large-scale explosion, both sides stopped moving and stared at all this in a daze.

The shattered corpses, blood, grass and dirt rained down from the sky and spilled on the heads and bodies of all the survivors.

Li Zhizhong was the commander of the Western Xia army, and after charging forward in a show just now, he quickly reined in his horse and stayed out of the range of the imperial army, so he also escaped.

Siran Li Zhizhong survived, but most of the Western Xia soldiers who rushed under the city wall and were desperately climbing up were blown to pieces by the gunpowder buried in the ground.

After this explosion, the Western Xia army under the four walls was killed on the spot, and even those who survived were wounded with missing arms and legs.