Li Zicheng waited for more than an hour to let his subordinates rest and eat their stomachs, and also waited for the simple ladder to be made. Wait for his scouts to report that all the gates of Nanjing are closed and that there are no troops outside the city before they start attacking.

He said lightly: "There are no troops outside the city, which shows how bold it is." The lonely city is defended, I think they can defend it for three days! ”

At this time, Liu Zongmin finally had a smile. He had a lot of time after being interrupted along the way, so that he lost another batch of his already small subordinates. This time, he was asked to attack Nanjing, and he was trying to find a way to reduce the losses of his troops along the way. But now it seems that they are a little cautious, these Southern Ming generals, needless to say, are inferior to Li Yan, even compared to the original officials and troops in the north.

"Zongdi, you go up first." Li Zicheng instructed: "Let's attack the south, there are two big lakes in the east, and the west and north are against the Yangtze River, which is not easy to use." ”

Yuan Zongdi clenched his fists and took his life. After a while, let his men start to charge.

They have fought a lot with Li Yan in the past few years, and they have also learned a lot of things. Like the current first round of attacks, it is not a blind impact, but a giant shield that first covers the advance of the archers and tiger squatting cannons, testing the attack distance of the enemy army at the head of the city.

Sure enough, their troops were still more than two miles away from the city wall, and the artillery, bows and arrows, and swarms of bees on the city began to fire at the city.

Yuan Zongdi watched attentively and found that even if those cannons were fired at the top of the city, they could only hit five or six hundred paces away. Moreover, the interval between the firing of the artillery is very long, indicating that the operating artillery is very untrained.

At this time, he almost knew the bottom of his mind, and immediately ordered: "Let the front speed up, and use the fastest speed to reach within one hundred and fifty paces from the city wall." Then let the archers immediately hang and shoot at the city wall, and at the same time let the tiger squat cannon set up and fire as soon as possible. Let the infantry prepare, and as soon as the Tiger Squat cannon is fired, it rushes forward. ”

Li Zicheng's side was well arranged, but Wang Sixi and others at the head of the city shook their heads.

"Captain, these are all raw melons and eggs, I'm afraid I can't hold it." Ouyang Yun hid behind the sandbag, with a long shield behind his back, and said worriedly.

Wang Sixi looked out at the swarm of bee arrows scurrying around in smoke, and they all fell within fifty or sixty steps. He also said helplessly: "He @ milk @ milk@, I also regret coming to earn this great achievement." But it's too late to regret it now, so let's walk around and point fingers. Our net worth and life depend on these donkey dung eggs. ”

Ouyang Yun took a shield from the side and gave it to Wang Sixi, and pointed outward: "Be careful, I seem to have seen a tiger squatting cannon." These thieves have also learned a lot from us. ”

At this time, Li Zicheng's shield line was less than two hundred steps away from the city wall. Wang Sixi glanced out, took the shield, patted Ouyang Yun on the shoulder, and said, "Be careful yourself, I'll take a look elsewhere." ”

As soon as Wang Sixi left for a while, Ouyang Yun reminded loudly: "Be careful, you have to release the arrow!" ”

Soon, a similar reminder sounded on the city walls. One by one, the soldiers and civilians crawled behind the sandbags like frightened rabbits, holding their heads with their hands, not daring to make the slightest movement. And the artillerymen who were still in full swing just now were the same, and they also hid behind sandbags.

Ouyang Yun ran into a gun shed with his shield in his hand, kicked the artilleryman's buttocks, and ordered: "Keep firing the artillery, there is a gun shed, what are you afraid of?!" Turn the high and low angles up and hit the shields that are still close! ”

After the order, he ignored the supervision and ran to the next gun position. At this time, the feather arrows fell like raindrops, and the soldiers and civilians who had not been hidden were wounded, screaming and rolling around. And Ouyang Yun couldn't stop, because those gunners were frightened one by one, no one kicked them, and they wouldn't continue to fire.

And several soldiers brought by Guo Chengdong had to go into battle to operate the artillery in person. Although they are not professional artillerymen, they have seen a lot of them, and they are more clever in operation than those clumsy Beijing soldiers. They didn't care about the archers, because the archers could only fire a dozen or twenty feathered arrows, and the real threat was the tiger squat cannons that were still approaching the walls.

After their efforts, Li Zicheng's shield covering troops, who had already entered the city wall for a hundred steps, finally suffered casualties. Several shells smashed on the shield, and the fragments of the shield injured the soldiers behind, and the two giant shields stopped completely, and there were too many wounded soldiers to lift this giant shield.

However, this small casualty could not stop Li Zicheng's giant shield from continuing to advance, and they still covered the tiger squat cannon to continue to approach the city wall. Their Tiger Squat Cannon projectiles have been continuously improved, and they can also hit a hundred paces away, so as long as they advance another twenty or thirty steps, their Tiger Squat Cannon can hit the city wall of Nanjing.

At this time, Guo Chengdong went up to the city wall with three simple stone throwing machines. He led the people to lift the stone throwers to the sides where they were not attacked by the feathered arrows, and asked the soldiers to take out the prepared canisters of fire oil. After lighting the cloth surrounding the fire pot, Guo Chengdong immediately asked the soldiers to launch it. But the fire pot only flew more than forty paces away, and a ball of fire exploded in the open space outside the city walls.

Guo Chengdong added two more people to each of the two cannons, and fired again, this time finally firing the fire pot in front of Li Zicheng's giant shield front. This sudden turn of events finally made Li Zicheng's giant shield stop, and they felt the danger.

Yuan Zongdi in the rear hesitated, because he looked at this routine, which was a bit like Li Yan's tricks. However, looking at the distance between the flames and the city wall, it didn't look like Li Yan's troops.

At this time, Li Zicheng and others, who were further behind, saw this situation. Liu Zongmin suggested: "They should be allowed to move on, the archers will not be able to shoot their bows soon." ”

Tian Jianxiu dissuaded: "Let them withdraw." We only have these twelve groups of gunners who are relatively accurate, and if there are heavy casualties, I don't know how long it will take for someone to replace them. ”

Li Zicheng hesitated for a while before finally ordering: "Let the tiger squat cannon be withdrawn." The infantry rushed straight up, and I don't think there were a few trebuchets on them, so they shouldn't be able to stop us from landing into the city. ”

Yuan Zongdi received instructions and had no choice but to launch an assault in advance. The soldiers rushed forward with long ladders, while the Tiger Squat artillery units retreated under the cover of giant shields.

Some of the ladders were used as moats, and they didn't have time to lay planks on the ladders, and the soldiers had to step on the crossbeams one by one, so the speed of crossing the moat was much slower.

At the same time, they are also attacked by various firearms. The fire pot was still firing from a distance and near, but each time it exploded into flames, it could devour the thieves within five or six paces of it. Feathered arrows and crossbows flew everywhere, but most of them seemed to be stuck in the clearing. The same goes for a swarm of bees that look brilliant when fired, most of the arrows are propelled by gunpowder. The cannonballs can only fly out by luck, and hitting one counts as one, because after the cannonball hits the ground, there is almost no bounce, and the lethality is reduced a lot.

Therefore, none of these weapons could stop the pace of Li Zicheng's troops from advancing towards Nanjing, and the moment of hand-to-hand contact was about to come.

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