After nightfall, the attack without hesitation was first launched west of Andingmen, and the defenders at the head of the city seemed to have deployed heavy troops and were ready to defend the city. When the officers and soldiers approached about 100 paces from the top of the city, a continuous stream of rockets and torches with overdrawn burning materials on the inside of the city wall were thrown one after another, forming a safe zone of smoke under the city. However, what the defenders of the castle did not expect was that although the officers and men of the Guards Battalion and the Brave Guard Battalion had been trained for about a year, there were still not many people who could draw a strong bow with more than one stone force. In terms of accurate shooting and unique actual combat marksmanship, it is almost unsurpassed under the guarantee of sufficient training resources. The crossbowman, who specializes in range-setting, marked several directions on the head of the city with arrows with fire, and roughly informed the distance. In the darkness of the night, a continuous rain of precise arrows first shot out one after another from the extreme distance of the bow and arrow thrown from about 150 paces away, about 220 meters away, and at least more than half of the city was covered by the rate of fire that was not low.

At this time, although the defenders who had been prepared for a long time used shields and even continuous "frame shields" to effectively resist the rain of arrows, and the continuous projection of fire behind them also made the entire city wall dozens of steps in front of the city still become unsafe, but the flintlock musketeers relying on the excellent plate armor and the arrow curtain that continued to advance also greatly reduced the fire threat suppressed by the counterattack on the inside of the city head and the city head.

When the officers and soldiers in charge of the blasting attack approached about three zhang from the city head, the quilts covered with gunpowder and all kinds of explosive city defense equipment turned the distance within three zhang of the city head into a sea of fire. The bullets that continued to come from the top of the city were still violent. Relying on vehicle shields and large shields that approached within a certain distance of the city reduced the risk of casualties for the attacking team.

The intensity of the defenders' resistance and the rules and regulations were still slightly more than Xiao Xuan expected, but it didn't seem to pose a fundamental obstacle to his offensive plan. In particular, the trenches outside the city seem to have been filled in during the previous tentative assault by the Jianzhou army.

The violent explosion and blasting attack first unfolded at a distance of about ten zhang from the city head, and although the blasting attack at this distance was not very accurate, it was able to collapse a large number of stones weighing several pounds onto the city head, minimizing the suppression of fire on the city head.

At this time, the pole blasters used for the station finally played a role, and began to attack the city with explosives fixed to bamboo poles of about 12 catties. It seemed that many elites were concentrated, and the resistance of the defenders at the head of the city was beyond imagination, but it quickly quieted down amid the continuous explosions. The stragglers who took the opportunity to attack the vicinity of the city also extinguished many fires. The archers pressed in a deeper direction.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, the officers and men of the guard battalion also launched the siege with hooks and cables as quickly as possible, and the hundreds of elite officers and soldiers who were the first to reach the top of the city all carried at least two rows of reloaded gunpowder steel crossbows, which resisted the counterattack of the enemy at the head of the city in a short time. When more and more officers and men of the artillery brigade reinforced the city, the threshold of success in the operation was crossed at this time.

The fierce confrontation lasted only about half an hour, and the officers and men of the attacking Guards Battalion and the Brave Guard Battalion also paid the price of more than 100 casualties and more than 40 deaths. However, the tens of thousands of defenders at the head of the city failed to have the will to fight like the main force of Jianzhou after all, and after accumulating more than 1,000 casualties, the entire city head near Andingmen was finally lost.

In order to prevent long nights and dreams, not long after the entire army had just occupied Andingmen and the nearby city head of about two miles, Xiao Xuan ordered all the vehicles, wounded, and other heavy materials to be transported to the city as soon as possible with ropes and other tools that had been prepared long ago. Just as Xiao Xuan feared, not long after the officers and soldiers occupying the city had safely moved most of the people and vehicles to the city, the sound of horses' hooves seemed to faintly appear from afar in the night. It is clear: at least a few thousand Jianzhou cavalry do not seem to have given up this last chance to win. It's just that he didn't expect that the team led by Xiao Xuan would break through the capital city, which was previously considered impregnable, in almost an hour.

The fierce lifting of cannons that had never been seen from Jiannu in the battle, the standard official language common to ordinary soldiers, the skillful use of gunpowder weapons, and the unique system of arrows of the Forbidden Brigade of the Son of Heaven all began to make more and more defenders feel a trace of trepidation and suspicion.

If it was only a small group of people and a small number of weapons, it could be explained by counterfeit reasons, but after the fierce battle after the night of October 15, many people began to understand that the team attacking the city was probably not the so-called Jiannu Baoyi. When several officers who had been captured at the head of the city were escorted over, they finally knew that they had caused a catastrophe.

"Where's Yan Mingtai?" At this time, Xiao Xuan, who had also learned some things through some on-the-spot interrogations, asked a little sternly.

"Lord Yan... Lord Yan, he... Although the officer who was questioned was once again severely tortured, he could only come to the conclusion that the secretary of the military department was missing.

Obviously: Xiao Xuan once again underestimated the lower limit of some people: when facing some possible threats to their interests that did not happen. Some people not only collude with foreign countries and openly rebel against them, but also flee without shame. However, this also reminded Xiao Xuan to a certain extent: If you are going to fight dogs in the capital, I am afraid that you have to close the gate first, only when you firmly control the nine gates of the capital, and then part of the Li Zicheng is safer.

But at least when the whole team returned safely to the head of the capital, and finally avoided the development of the misunderstanding, the whole army got rid of the dangerous state that had always existed before.

At this time, Xiao Xuan once again fell into a person's contemplation, thinking about it was not as simple as whether he wanted to continue to be an emperor of the military camp. There is also the question of direction: whether it is a reform or a revolution that completely breaks with the old forces is what it wants to carry out. Especially when his goal is not only to recreate a traditional feudal dynasty.

Many things in the past year, as well as various things in modern history, seem to have hinted to Xiao Xuan: traditional civilization has reached the late Ming Dynasty, and even the backbone and support of traditional Chinese culture have reached the late Ming Dynasty, and they have lost something inexplicable. Even if there was no Manchu invasion, and even if an ordinary level of success was added, there was no way to turn around the decaying and outdated Chinese society with great inertia that would eventually become backward. I am afraid that China's traditional culture and the entire social order really need a complete reshuffle of the revolution, not just some top-down improvement, in order to move towards a new life.

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(End of chapter)