A jet-black iron projectile burst out of its muzzle with flames and smoke, swept past the running figure, and crashed into the soft earthen wall. It burrowed into it disdainfully, but the compacted soil stubbornly wrapped around it, causing it to lose most of its kinetic energy. When it exhausted the earth wall, it could only follow the laws of physics, and reluctantly chose a curved arc to fall down. But once again a basket of earth on the ground stood bravely in front of it, bouncing it down into the dust.

Earth-colored mud crumbs flew all over the sky, scattering them on the backs of the prostrate people in the courtyard. There were already three cannons, Cheng Weiguo exerted his arms, jumped up from the ground suddenly, his body shook, and the dirt on the armor fell down. The Franc was abandoned on the northern line of defense, and it should have had nine subguns. However, after decades of use, only four subguns remained, and one did not dare to use it because there was a crack visible to the naked eye on it.

"The unlucky guy who was tricked let out a sigh!" Cheng Weiguo shouted as he quickly looked out through the hole in the wall. This look made him feel bad. Turquoise thugs poured across the trenches, and the walls trembled with their efforts.

"Attack! Keep the earthen wall! Cheng Weiguo yelled.

"Can you still listen to your nonsense?" The veterans grinned and kicked up the guards and auxiliaries on the ground and told them to do whatever they wanted.

The soldiers leapt to their feet and threw themselves at the nearest wall in a daze. Regardless of whether there was an enemy outside, as long as he felt the figure shaking, the spear would not hesitate to poke out. Of course, the thugs outside also poked their spears in. The two sides stabbed each other across the wall, and in the blink of an eye, dozens of lives were lost inside and outside the wall.

"Iron sand in the firecracker! Kill their turtle son! ”

Cheng Weiguo really saw that there were not many local tyrants with cotton armor, and even fewer with leather armor and iron armor. Armor is several times more expensive than knives and guns, and the officers and soldiers can't do it for everyone to have armor, let alone a hungry and full of local tyrants? The lethality of iron sand as large as mung beans is very weak, and its main role is to deter the unarmored soldiers psychologically and indiscriminate surface damage outside the perforation.

There was no time to command a salvo.

Bang! Bang!

In the roar of the firecrackers, there were not a few people outside the courtyard wall who fell, but unfortunately there were many people who turned around and ran away. But as long as they are still standing on the bamboo ladder, there are only two ways to escape.

One is to go down the trench by himself, and the other is to push the people behind him down the trench.

The firing effect was good, but the veterans were not in the slightest bit happy. They shouted loudly to continue reloading, they didn't expect the guns to kill many enemies, they wanted to stall for time so that they could hold out until the next counterattack of the commander.

……

Where will their Lord be?

Under the blow of the superior forces of the local tyrants, Zhang Zuokai had retreated to the western edge of the town. There is no way to retreat here, and if they take another step back, they can only go down to the Yuxi River to bathe. The three hundred cavalry fought to only one hundred, and the remaining infantry was less than five hundred. It was only under the cover of the two fortresses of Yuxi Temple and the barn that they could regroup and take a breather. It's just that the cavalry of the Tyrants is also regrouping, and may soon pounce again.

Zhang Zuokai's body and horse were covered in blood, and he looked embarrassed. His horse had been bruised, and his left front leg was a little unstable. And his own upper right arm was swept by a large wooden stick, and now he can't swing his arm with a knife at all.

Looking at the seemingly calm field town from afar, Zhang Zuokai wondered: "Damn! This horse is addicted! It's an hour, don't set fire yet! ”

"General!" Li Xiangchun guessed: "Maybe Master Ma wants to attract more local thugs to reduce the pressure on us!" ”

Zhang Zuokai hated and scolded: "Alleviate it! He is using Lao Tzu's soldiers in exchange for his future! No, we can't let him drag it out like this! You go, lead the people to set the house on fire! And then...... Lao Tzu fought here against the water, and if he was killed, he should be a loyal minister! ”

Li Xiangchun hesitated.

There were preparations in the town, and the houses except for the core position could be abandoned, so hay, firewood, and even gunpowder and vegetable oil were piled up in it early. The house, which was close to the core position, was also neatly demolished, and the public reason was that the wood was used as firewood for cooking these days.

It's just that the wind direction is a little wrong at this time, and it is a south wind. If the fire is lit from the inside, the fire will slowly grow larger, and even the headwind will not pose much threat to the core position; But if a fire is set out from outside, as soon as the south wind blows, the wind will help the fire, and it will inevitably spread rapidly. Once the house in the core position is set on fire, the consequences are unimaginable.

"Master General, the wind is not in the right direction now...... Li Xiangchun reminded in a low voice.

"The wind is in the right direction! Lao Tzu looks, this is God wants to let the local tyrant die in it! ”

Zhang Xiangkai looked up to the sky and laughed. It's just that in the midst of laughter, his face is a little hideous.

Li Xiangchun looked at the changing color on the face of the main general, and did not dare to say anything more.

"Yes, the last general will do it!"

"Remember, except for Ma Gan, the rest of the people can give up! As for Yang Mingshi, he is just a sesame mung bean petty official, if he can save it, he will save it, but if he can't save it,......"

……

Unlike Zhang Zuokai's imagination, there is no peace in the core position.

When the tyrants discovered that the food and silver they had so desperately hoped for were hidden in several compounds along the riverbank, they immediately launched a new offensive. It's just that here it met more stubborn resistance from the officers and soldiers.

The thugs once knocked down a courtyard wall with beams and pillars. However, as soon as they entered the hospital, they were hit head-on by the tiger squat cannon. The thief chief who led the team was killed immediately, and in order to retrieve his body, the minions were intercepted and killed by the officials and soldiers, and dozens of people died.

The Heaven Shaking King Bai Jiaolong, who was in the back of the palace, was immediately furious, and organized three hundred personal soldiers to attack again, and the location was still the gap that was easy to open. But when the thugs poured into the courtyard, they saw a surprising scene.

The officers and troops did not fight with them in the gap.

The Musketeer quickly escaped the improvised breastwork of the grain bags and entered the house. Iron kept coming out of the house, and soon more than a dozen thugs fell to the ground. But the local thugs could not disperse to exterminate the guns of the officers and soldiers, because their greatest threat was in the front—the officers and soldiers had set up a small four-row horizontal formation in the courtyard, the first three rows were dense with spears, and the back row was another row of guns. The spearmen in the front row crouched down, and the black hole in the back row pointed directly at them.

Even though most of the local thugs who rushed in were old bandits, they still hesitated, and no one was willing to stand in the way of other people's survival.

Just as the Turbulent hesitated, a row of guns erupted flames and smoke.

Bang!

After the sound of the gun, three platoons of pikemen rushed over under the cover of thick smoke and poked at the thugs in the chaos.

In an instant, the attack of the Turbulrs collapsed.

Bai Jiaolong's beautiful face has disappeared, and a murderous background has been squeezed out of his delicate facial features.

The white dragon furiously commanded his men with a slender lancet:

"Carry the bamboo tube!"

"Carry it all up, and you won't get a cub if you save it!"

The bamboo tube in the mouth of the white dragon is a powerful weapon that the local tyrants have recently learned.

A bamboo two to three zhang long and two thick holds is broken from the middle, the bamboo knot in the middle is removed, and it is wrapped tightly with cloth again. After erection, about 100 catties of gunpowder were filled in, compacted and tamped, and the lead was taken out, and a Ming Dynasty version of the blasting barrel was successful (Note 1). This weapon is said to have spread to the Qin land in the north, and was particularly effective against the gentry's walled walls and earthen walls.

A bamboo tube attached to the high wall exploded without warning. The huge wave of air not only broke through a big gap in the wall, but also blew up several officers and soldiers who were lifting bamboo on the spot. With a cheer, the thugs rushed out of their hiding places, passed through the gap, and rushed into the courtyard. The stunned officers and soldiers did not have time to organize effective resistance, and were hacked to death by the swarming local thugs.

The yard quickly fell into disposition.

Seeing thousands of local rioters rushing forward with dozens of fried bamboos, Ma Gan on the watchtower finally made up his mind: "Give the order, set fire!" ”

……

Ma Gan set the fire, and Li Xiangchun also set the fire. Ma Gan set fire inside, and Li Xiangchun was outside. Ma Gan could sit and watch the fire, but Li Xiangchun had to brave the fire and rush in desperately to rescue Ma Gan, the deputy envoy of the Sichuan Military Garrison Department, who was sitting in Yuxichang.

Li Xiangchun fell into a trap, a death trap of his own making.

Using the dense housing courtyards of Yuxichang to break the siege of the local tyrants and keep the core position by fire attack was the last strategy in the defense plan formulated by Zhang Zuokai. For this reason, when Li Xiangchun was directing the construction of fortifications, he had secretly made corresponding arrangements.

Burning from the inside out, the local rioter can calmly leave and run away. And burning from the outside to the inside can encircle most of the local thugs who poured into the town and destroy them. But in this case, the direction of the wind is the biggest risk. As soon as the wind blows in the south, the fire will be uncontrollably rushed to the core position, burning everything inside, including Master Ma Ganma, the deputy envoy of the Sichuan military garrison, who promised to ask for rewards and compassionate land for the officers and men of Zhang Ying.

Therefore, Zhang Zuokai ordered Li Xiangchun to set fire to the periphery on the one hand, and on the other hand, he ordered him to immediately rush into the core position and escort Ma Gan to escape. Zhang Zuokai specially instructed him: If the fire is too big to rush out, use the small ferry hidden on the shore to send Ma Qian and Yang Mingshi to the river for temporary shelter.

But Li Xiangchun never expected that he would set the fire, and Ma Gan would also set it on fire. Fires broke out on both sides inside and outside, and coupled with the southerly wind, the fire spread rapidly. Before Li Xiangchun rushed to the core position, a house in front of him suddenly exploded. Immediately afterward, more houses exploded and burst into flames, creating a wall of fire that enclosed him and another family member in between.

The scorching heat instantly dried the sweat on the horse's body, and the blazing flames forced people's eyes to sting.

Finished!

Li Xiangchun thought sadly.

I didn't expect it to be such an ending.

Note 1: Zhang Xianzhong broke through Chengdu and used the world's largest blasting canister so far. In history, it was made by cutting off the giant cypress outside the Wuhou Temple in the south of Chengdu City, hollowing it out, filling it with gunpowder and then wrapping it with cloth. During the siege of the city, a huge tree was erected and placed on the head of the city, and the tall city wall of Chengdu was immediately blown down and lost.