When the day dawned, the Han army and the Western Regions coalition army defending the city could only fight the Kushan people with open swords and guns.

Soon, half of the city to the south was completely occupied by the Kushan Empire, and the trebuchet was very useful.

However, because street fighting was considered when it was originally designed, the buildings in the city are very sturdy, and they are designed to be easy to defend and difficult to attack, and there are hidden passages reserved.

Therefore, the central army can dispatch troops in the city.

However, with their numerical superiority, the Kushan army is still encroaching on one street after another, one courtyard after another.

The hoplites had superior equipment and outstanding protective performance, even if they attacked from behind, it was difficult to easily succeed, and the Han army could only focus on the archers.

Soon, Sauter noticed the problem, and he combined the archers with the armored crossbowmen of Peshawar.

The hoplites, paired with armored crossbowmen, were perfect, and although the speed of advance was greatly reduced, the casualties were also greatly reduced.

And after they pushed the ballistae to the forefront, they directly knocked down the walls with the ballistae on those suspicious houses and courtyards.

No one thought that the ballistae used in the siege could be so useful when they were fired horizontally.

The Han army also shifted the focus of the sneak attack to the ballistas, and they succeeded a few times at first, but soon the Kushan army increased the number of defenders around the ballistas.

The street fighting entered a white heat, although the Han army, with the advantage of being familiar with the terrain, tried to choose to shoot from behind, or formed locally to fight more and fight less.

However, the Kushan army still relied on the superiority in numbers and equipment, and by noon it had already controlled two-thirds of the city.

At this time, the casualties of the Han army had already exceeded half, and the Western Regions Coalition Army was almost completely wiped out.

Gao Shun looked at Tai Shici, who was already slightly injured beside him, "It seems that we can't hold out at night, there are too many enemies, the brigades have already been reduced by more than half, and they meet the conditions for retreat, I am in charge, let's retreat!" ”

Tai Shici nodded, this time two brigades of his Ninth Division and one brigade of the Second Garrison Division were injured, and the reduction of two-thirds of the troops was unprecedented in the history of the Central Army.

The Ninth Division had basically lost the battle, and Tai Shici said: "I'll carry out the final blow, and the old commander will take everyone to withdraw first!" ”

Gao Shun shook his head, "Although I only have one arm to work with, it doesn't mean that I'm old." I am your commander, and you must obey my orders, and I command you to lead the evacuation of the army at once. ”

"Besides, I'm not going to be a death squad, you're worried about a fart, get out!"

Of course, Tai Shici couldn't compete with Gao Shun, so he could only gather his troops and begin to retreat to the north city gate.

Gao Shun commanded a battalion of the 2nd Garrison Division, which had been prepared for a long time, and began to make final preparations.

Standing at the head of the city and looking at the frontier battlefield, Sote suddenly felt that something was wrong, as if the position of the Han army was much quieter all of a sudden, and the one-third of the city that was still under the control of the Han army suddenly fell into a dead silence.

As an excellent commander, he had an intuition, "Order two teams to be dispatched in front and break in to see, what the hell are the Han people doing?" ”

Soon, the Kushan infantry at the forefront received an order, and two heavy infantry squads and two armored crossbow squads immediately jumped out of their own side of the bunker and rushed towards the Han army's position.

Strangely, they rushed all the way into the depths of the opposite street without encountering any arrows.

Seeing that he was about to rush to the end of the street, no Han army rushed out to attack him.

A crossbowman climbed onto the roof, and vaguely saw many figures gathering in the direction of the North City Gate in the distance.

The north gates have been opened, and many people are leaving the city.

"Run, the Han army is gone, go and report to the general!" Immediately someone rushed to report back to Sauter.

The commander of the Minaggara hoplite division, who was commanding at the front, was willing to let go of this opportunity to make meritorious contributions?

He personally led his subordinates to rush out, who can capture the north city gate, it represents the occupation of Xinwan City, this is a huge credit, especially the hateful Han army has fled, the credit at your fingertips!

The commander of the Peshawar armored crossbow division on the side is not stupid, the credit is lost in the sky, and it is a fool not to rob it, and he can be the commander of the division, obviously not a fool.

He also ordered all the crossbowmen to attack, to plant the flag of the division and regiment on the north gate, and the crossbowmen, who were originally hiding behind the big shields of the heavy infantry, rushed out at once, one by one faster than rabbits.

Their armor was much lighter than the heavy infantry, so they naturally ran much faster, and came from behind.

The commander of the heavy infantry division scolded his mother angrily, he ordered his heavy infantry to throw away the big shields, speed up the sprint, and some of them even took off their bulky helmets, if it wasn't for the trouble to wear the armor, I'm afraid they would have been stripped off a long time ago.

And all this made Sauter, who had just gotten the news, look right, and he scolded the two division commanders for being stupid, and once the Han people got a little tricks or an ambush, they would suffer a big loss.

But he is still commanding the whole situation on the city wall, but he can't manage the forefront.

He immediately rushed down the city to the front line, trying to stop their folly.

The meritorious Kushan infantry rushed quickly, and the infantry of the two divisions seemed to be in a sprint race, especially since there was no Han army to stop them along the way.

With great success, they rushed to the junction of the last street before the North Gate, where they finally met resistance.

A battalion of Han troops, under the leadership of Gao Shun, had been waiting here for a long time, lined up in a neat queue.

Seeing the Kushan infantry rushing at a speed of 100 meters, hundreds of crossbows immediately shot out a dense array of crossbow arrows, and the Baishawar crossbowmen and heavy infantry without large shields who rushed in front immediately fell in large pieces.

The Han army's marksmanship was excellent, and many of the heavy infantry were shot in the throat or in the face.

Many of the heavy infantry who were running behind immediately picked up the large shields thrown by the people in front of them and rushed forward.

With a common enemy, the Kushan infantry finally regained their senses, and the armored crossbowmen covered the advance of the heavy infantry, while the heavy infantry protected the crossbowmen with large shields and, as usual, pushed forward.

This battalion of the Han army is the reconnaissance battalion of the Second Garrison Division, everything is in accordance with the old rules of the Dangkou cavalry, and most of the battalion are marksmen.

This battalion had not been on the ground in the previous siege and had been hidden in the snow until this last moment.

They had plenty of crossbow bolts and grenades, so when the Kushan infantry rushed closer, they once again tasted the long-lost grenades.

Soon, the first attack was repulsed by the Han army.

Taking advantage of the fact that the Guishan infantry was organizing a new wave of attacks, Gao Shun retreated to the city gate cave at the north gate with this battalion, and looking at the enemy who was catching up, Gao Shun ordered: "Begin, detonate!" ”

The Han army behind him immediately lit a large bundle of fuses behind him that he didn't know where to lead, and these fuses immediately burned away.

When the advance of the Kushan infantry had already rushed to the street in front of the city gate, suddenly there was a loud rumble in the city, and then there was a wave of shaking.

Then there were huge explosions, and huge plumes of smoke rose into the sky, even obscuring the sky.

It turned out that Gao Shun had already planted a large amount of explosives in the underground of various blocks of Xinwan City, which almost wiped out the inventory of Guishan City.

Gao Shun's final plan was to blow up the entire Xinwan City when he retreated, and blow up the Kushan Imperial Army that had attacked the city into the sky.

(End of chapter)