As a leader who is not a layman, Yuan Keli certainly understands the truth that the siege of the city must be carried out in one go. Some siege battles in history may have lasted for a long time from beginning to end, but the climax of the attack was often only a few days, and most of the time it was just a mutual test and preparation. At this time, with a strong number of troops, the logistics line is also guaranteed by the summer canal system, and it seems that it is not a problem to gather more troops, the besieging army has obviously not consumed too much of its cards and energy in the previous fierce attack.

Therefore, Sun Chengzong finally agreed to launch another decisive assault near dusk on the last day of June, after the failure of the attack in the first half of the night. The direction of the key attack is still relatively close to the northeast of the Imperial Horse Prison and even the Forbidden City, but it is not near the city gate as the traditional way, but at the corner between Anding Gate and Dongzhi Gate. At night, the terrifying fire light like a fire dragon near the city gate gave many elites a psychological shadow, and it was obvious that the previous plan had been miscalculated. However, Sun Chengzong judged that this unique and bizarre method must have its price, and it was impossible to have such a fire-breathing device that could spray oil over a long distance in every part of the city wall. If the defending side is fortified everywhere at the head of the long city, it means that the city gate is likely to become a new empty order. Therefore, after listening to the stories of many siege generals, Sun Chengzong concentrated 24 of the 27 Hongyi cannons he brought with him at a distance of about one mile outside the extension line along the north and east walls of the capital, and rearranged the artillery positions according to the three layers in depth, so as to launch longitudinal fire more accurately and effectively in the direction of the city head, and even suppress the enemy soldiers who were preparing to defend the city in the city. At the same time, learning from the previous lessons, the goal of the siege is not only to capture more of the city's head, but to break through the inner walls effectively. All of a sudden, preparations for a second round of fierce assault began to unfold outside the city.

Xiao Xuan obviously understood what he needed most now, and not long after the climax of the enemy attack at night ended, the task of cleaning up the battlefield and the loot was quietly carried out. Since the crushing blow he suffered when he was approaching the capital, Xiao Xuan knew very well that he needed a big victory with conclusive evidence to reunite his morale and people's hearts. Because before this, not only some people around him, but also some people outside the team, even some officers and soldiers in the teaching brigade felt a little panic when they saw the endless enemy camps outside the city, and they didn't know if the city could be defended under the pressure of such a huge enemy force outside the city. Therefore, even if they continued to use building carts and bamboo poles to set nets, the whole team spent a lot of money, and took some risks to gather the dead bodies of the enemy at the head of the city, and splashed them with boiling water to show this great victory in front of the team.

At dawn, at a distance of only more than two miles from the city, Xiao Xuan gathered a lot of officers and soldiers and even some people in the city to lecture on the playground of the Imperial Horse Supervisor: "Many people participated in the fierce battle of the city defense last night, and the process of the battle was also recorded in detail. Some of you now have a general understanding of how the battle is going on, so I won't say much. The enemy left as many as 5,000 corpses on the city, and many banners and even armor were discarded. Andingmen and even Dongzhimen from the inner city to the outer city are covered with the corpses of the enemy's elite soldiers in armor, and you have also seen the newly captured armor. As for the casualties of our troops? Although the casualties of the participating teams were not small, they were also included in the full battle and some of the supporters. Our army only invested more than 10,000 people, including two or three thousand core elites, and only a few hundred people served as a counter-assault team at the head of the city. The casualties were not more than one-tenth of that of the attacking enemy. The current war is not as in the past because of the lack of projection means and firepower, often have to fight face-to-face with the enemy army to separate the results, it is more like a kind of engineering and skill, as long as the officers and soldiers and even the militia participating in the war do it in accordance with the discipline and requirements, and the tactics are correct, not to mention the estimated enemy army outside the city, which is only about 200,000, that is, a million army, and it is not all waste soldiers like the local guard posts, and how can the entire capital be? Of course, although the food and water stores in the city are abundant, they are also limited after all, but I believe that in the next one or two years, at most three or five years, you will be able to grow into a truly meritorious soldier in the training of defending the city, and make immortal contributions to the fight against the chaos and save the country. . . ”

At this point, except for a very small number of "smart people in the upper echelons" who still suspected that this great victory was morale-boosting propaganda, from the people in the city to the officers and men of the Guards Battalion and the Brave Guard Battalion, all began to understand how the troops defending the city were tactically tight and well-commanded. Maybe this siege battle didn't have to endure famine or even suffer too much damage to survive the crisis?

At the same time that Xiao Xuan took advantage of the big victory in the first battle to boost his morale, the confrontation drills and related deployment arrangements in the pro-military camp were also being carried out at the fastest speed. When Xiao Xuan revisited the command bunker about a mile away from the city wall at noon, he saw the actions that the soldiers of the strategic group estimated that the enemy army was likely to do. If you think differently and change it to yourself, and then refer to the siege tactics related to Li Zicheng and others when the Ming army went south before, it is likely that the new round of attack will not be launched on the city wall near the city gate. There is a high probability that it will be spread out at the four corners of the city wall, especially in the northeast or southeast direction, which is relatively close to the core and does not face the obstacle of crossing the water.

However, the direction from which the enemy will launch a full-scale attack is unpredictable at this time. At this time, Xiao Xuan also suddenly found that compared to the Liaodong Group created by the financial resources of the entire Ming Dynasty outside the city and part of the Northwest Group, the little money he had left now was still somewhat stretched even in the defense of the entire capital.

"Have all the carriage passages on the inner wall been completely repaired?" Xiao Xuan suddenly asked.

"Preparations have been in the works for several months, and the entire inner wall around the inner wall of the city wall has been built with four carriages in parallel with the shell, and the associated houses have been cleaned and renovated a lot in the past few months."

Hearing such an answer, Xiao Xuan's somewhat worried Xincai let go slightly. However, at this time, the rumbling cannon sound in the direction of the northeast corner of the capital seemed to be heard again.

(End of chapter)