Although Wei Yingjia, who is the right attendant of the Ministry of War, is a literati, he is not a layman in military affairs. In the past few years, there have been more overt and covert reports, and to a large extent, they are stronger than many generals who either played chess with stinky chess baskets at the border gates or faced defeat without much opportunity to accumulate actual combat experience. After encountering resistance in the barrier area near the main camp of the Imperial Horse Prison Army, the night attack on the west side resolutely chose to let the concentrated elite mix through the lottery according to the enemy's firepower and resistance, and the thousands of ordinary archers and officers and soldiers of the five military battalions selected under severe rewards and punishments took turns to participate in the battle under armor and shields, so as to minimize the risk of loss and pressure. In the face of the fire under the artillery positions near the Imperial Horse Prison Army, the battle line was barely maintained and there was no rout.

"Did the catapult bring it over?"

"Lord Qiqi, a lot of the earthen fence in the west has been demolished, and catapults and artillery are constantly being brought in from afar...

"Nope! It's better to leave the catapult outside, a hundred steps away is not too far, it should be enough. It is good that the artillery is deployed near the earthen fence, and there is no need to venture too deep. After the fireball thrown by the catapult illuminates the enemy position, order the artillery positions to prepare to fire! It should be a few hours before dawn, but we can't afford to delay any longer! After weighing it for a moment, Wei Yingjia seemed to sense a danger: if a large number of men were put into the earthen enclosure, it was very likely that the enemy would incur unnecessary losses if there was an unexpected counterattack. It is enough to launch a focused attack from the left and right near the earthen wall, at least to break through the space for the Chinese army to squeeze the opponent.

Under the glow of the torches outside the earthen enclosure, twenty or thirty pounds of baskets filled with willow wood and charcoal and ignition devices were placed on the boom of the counterweight catapult. The counterweight catapult temporarily found was only about 2,000 catties of counterweight, and it could barely throw an object of about twenty or thirty catties to a distance of about the approximate range of a bow and arrow. It is a world away from the legendary super-heavy trebuchet with a 15-ton counterweight. But again, operating something that is not much stronger than a human catapult also greatly simplifies the operational requirements, not to mention the convenience of transportation.

With the widespread use of artillery, this kind of equipment has been largely eliminated, and if it were not for the relatively careful preparation in the past half month, I am afraid that there would not be any existing stock equipment available.

The willow wood and charcoal wrapped in iron strips are not easy to produce too much smoke when burned, but they can be lit up at night to a large extent. This is also the method that Wei Yingjia came up with in the night battle against the possibility of the new army making good use of firearms and fortifications.

The hundreds of kilograms of illumination thrown out by the catapults made by a dozen or so catapults in succession did not bring much lethal effect, but they made the direct fire of the next artillery at a distance of about 100 paces more accurate.

If it weren't for Xiao Xuan's reference to the successful experience of Jinchuan in later generations, the artillery arrays exposed on the surface of the earth were often relatively short, and they might have suffered serious casualties under the multiple rounds of attacks carried out by hundreds of artillery pieces.

The continuous shelling under the firelight also made some people around Xiao Xuan feel nervous and stressed, and under the continuous bombardment of many seven or eight pounds of heavy bombs, even some people around Xiao Xuan were killed and injured. Although Tian Xiuying, Zhou Yufeng and other family members in the underground fortifications were not affected, they also felt the seriousness of the battle situation at this time.

Xiao Xuan was also very worried at this time that if the elite raid after such a fire suppression and cooperation came again, the young officers and soldiers of the Guards who had already suffered a lot of casualties and losses would probably lose their effective organization and command ability, and they would not be able to carry out any meaningful actions after the blasting counterattack. Although they have been training for half a month or more in accordance with the training methods of modern armies, the time is still too short after all.

Xiao Xuan's original plan was to launch a counterattack in the early hours of the morning when the sky was about to be bright but not fully bright, and it was difficult to see the debris covered in the sky, but it would not affect the team's counterattack when the advantage of firearms was played later. But now it seems that this counterattack is bound to be advanced. As the saying goes, very few battles come according to the pre-war plan, especially when the arrangement and command of the enemy seems to be a bit of a doorway, and it is not as layman as he imagined.

"Order the teams to prepare for a counterattack in advance! You personally go to the teams through the trenches to deliver the message! At this time, Xiao Xuan ordered. At the same time, the young officers and men of the artillery team around them also began to get busy, preparing for the largest counterattack. The target, of course, was not entirely the enemy forces that had not been able to deploy a short fire from the west, but also the earthen enclosures, which had broken many gaps but had not yet completely collapsed. Only by breaking through the earthen encirclement in the direction of the enemy's main attack can it seem that it can bring effective damage to the enemy's main firearms units that have not entered the urn.

Fierce cannon fire soon followed, and twenty general cannons fired a salvo of twice the standard charge according to the parallel aiming pole prepared near the western wall.

The explosion happened again, and one of the big general's cannons may have been sealed too tightly, or maybe there was a problem with the body. A loud explosion accompanied by fire rose from the artillery position. This also made the officers and men of the Fifth Army Battalion, who launched the main attack from the west, slightly less pressure at the first time.

But immediately afterward, 20 heavy bombs with two-thirds of the speed of sound slammed into the earthen wall, collapsing many places on the earthen wall that stretched for about 200 paces. The ricochet reflex caused by the heavy artillery bombardment caused casualties among at least seven or eight elite officers and men who launched an attack inside the earthen enclosure.

At this time, many officers were glad that they had obeyed Wei Yingjia's arrangement and did not put the main army into the earthen fence defense circle, but carried out suppression operations based on the earthen wall. Although there were still many casualties in this heavy shelling, the casualties of more than 20 people were not enough to collapse the army of several thousand.

The fierce artillery battle lasted for about a quarter of an hour, and under the bombardment of more than 20 rounds of artillery, most of the earthen enclosure on the west side collapsed. However, there were three more bombing accidents on the position of the Imperial Horse Prison Central Army. Twenty guns lost four in a short time under heavy fire. According to common sense, casualties caused by the explosion of the chamber must seriously hurt the morale of the gunners, as the shelling becomes more and more sparse. Wei Yingjia felt that the time had come to devote more elite troops to the main force to launch a flank assault from the south.

More than 300 elite soldiers mixed with more than 1,000 selected soldiers launched a flank attack from the south, which brought more than 10 casualties and losses in a very short period of time, and more than 20 hidden bunker firing ports were abandoned.

After concentrating their forces through the covered trenches to resist the main force of the officers and men of the five military battalions in the south, and adjusting the muzzles, reloads, and charges as quickly as possible. Xiao Xuan gave the order to light the hole cards.

In order to prevent long nights and dreams, the last batch of fire channels buried deep in the "pits of no conscience" near the earthen fence were ignited very quickly, and in order to prevent at least five fire culverts from being ignited at the same time in at least every direction, it was only about half a minute later, and the violent explosion suddenly resounded from all directions near the outer defense line with the light of fire.

There were only eight "pits of no conscience" detonated to the west and south, and they did not seem to be planted with a lot of gunpowder, giving the initial impression that they were just being attacked by a single team like a buried mine. However, the sound of the special explosion made many officers and soldiers of the Fifth Military Battalion, including Wei Yingjia, think of something.

"Raise your shield! Raise your shield! The shouts of many officers who were a little smarter resounded.

But about ten seconds later, the sound of dead and wounded and shouts rang out, and more than 80,000 pieces of gravel and lead bullets weighing a total of 20,000 or 30,000 catties flew into the air to more than 150 zhang under the impetus of a total of more than 400 catties of gunpowder, and then scattered down.