Perhaps it was not easy to pursue and defeat the fleeing enemy forces at night, and at least half of the Datong army and even more than sixty percent of the backbone of the Datong army finally withdrew in the melee. However, there is no doubt that in the face of the assault of the volunteer division led by Xiao Xuan, even the opponent with a tenfold advantage in strength was defeated under this rare and ferocious style of play.

Compared with the offensive and defensive battles in Beijing and the Battle of Tongzhou, and then in many battles in Liaodong, the opponent was defeated ten times the scale of the opponent in the night offensive without paying too much price, which restored the morale of many officers and men of the volunteer division who were somewhat war-weary and wavering under the previous series of vicious battles.

After a brief re-repair, and having recollected a number of the projectiles that had been shot, and having made some necessary additions from the seized supplies, the contingent of several thousand men lightened the load of fire with some of the horses that had been left behind, and advanced south along the road as fast as they could.

The Ming army, which had been retreating into the Datong direction around Ningwuguan, soon received news of the defeat of the army south of Huairen. The fact that an army of tens of thousands of people fell into a rout so easily under the surprise attack of thousands of elite soldiers of the enemy also made Sun Chuanting feel a huge shock. There is no doubt that there was an obvious error in his previous judgment of the combat capability of this strong enemy. A few thousand against tens of thousands, after all, is not a few hundred against a few thousand, and if the superiority in combat effectiveness is obvious enough, such examples are also not without in history. Now, the main force of the Ming army in the direction of Ningwuguan is obviously facing the danger of being attacked from inside and outside.

Although Sun Chuanting had not experienced many battles, his understanding of the battlefield was not too bad, and when he realized that it was no longer meaningful to continue to try to stay at Ningwu Pass, and it was likely to put the large army in a desperate situation, he made up his mind to retreat in the direction of Taiyuan. As for the opponents with a scale of about 20,000 who were also quite strong in battle, after many days of fighting, Sun Chuanting had already judged that although those teams also had strong combat effectiveness, they would never be as fierce as the terrifying "volunteer army" in terms of active attack.

In the rout of the armies of all walks of life, the distance still gave the Ming army enough opportunities, in the main force of the volunteer division led by Xiao Xuan and the first army of the revolutionary army and the second army, and the troops approached the city of Taiyuan, the original gathering in the direction of Ningwuguan more than 100,000 Ming army main force also fled to the direction of Taiyuan City, if you add some Datong Mansion from the north to join the army, as well as the remaining troops in the city, it is not much Taiyuan City at this time gathered as many as 150,000 troops.

Back then, because of the lessons of the Sui Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, the Song Dynasty destroyed the city defense in Taiyuan after the founding of the country, but after the founding of the Ming Dynasty, there were no such concerns. In the Ming Dynasty, Taiyuan Fucheng was a border pass, which could be regarded as large and deep. The walls stretched for twenty-four miles, and their size was difficult to easily flank even in today's much advanced firearms age. Moreover, the height of the head of the city is as high as 12 meters, and there are more than 10 meters of outer moats outside the city.

With sufficient troops, the city of Taiyuan, which was rebuilt with bricks and stones, seemed to be an impregnable fortification. It was not until 1949 in the late modern Liberation War that Taiyuan Fucheng, which was outdated in the times but still had a certain value at that time, was broken in the hard attack in the face of the attack of the main force of the four fields.

Xiao Xuan did not hesitate much at this time, and ordered the First Army and the Second Army to launch a blasting attack on the Taiyuan City Wall in a simple and traditional way at dawn. Not only light grenades, but also more prepared blasting rods and more sophisticated ladders were put into action.

Relying on the abundant forces in Taiyuan City at this time, when the army launched an attack in any direction, it would often encounter a dense rain of arrows like a field attack on the front of the enemy, as well as the shells that were fired fiercely from all directions. In addition, when attacking during the day, it is quite unfavorable for the attacking team.

Although the number of enemy troops killed and wounded in successive blasting attacks was significantly higher, the enemy forces at the head of the city fought back at all costs, and in the end, the first and second armies still did not have a team to finally hold the captured position at the head of the city. However, such an offensive operation that was immediately put into battle was not without effect, at least it made the defenders at the head of the city have no time to summarize the attack on the new force led by Xiao Xuan and make targeted defensive preparations.

Of course, because of participating in the offensive and defensive battles in the capital, the Datong Army pushed into Taiyuan City still made Sun Chuanting understand some fundamentally different principles of the city defense war in the new era from the past, but at this time, many officers of the Shaanxi army did not have enough courage to easily withdraw from the city. Some of the original new fortifications in Taiyuan City could not accommodate too many people.

The tentative attack organized by Xiao Xuan did not last long, and after two days of fighting, some of the braver and more elite teams were concentrated and supplemented by the volunteer division, and soon after the night of the second day of the army in Taiyuan, after a large-scale blasting attack, he led the three regiments of the Zhiyuan division to launch a fierce attack from the city head that stretched for several miles with the First Army and the Second Army.

The continuous blasting attacks in the city also caused the attacking team to pay some casualties, but under the new siege system, it was not suitable for the new era, and there was no so-called fortress Taiyuan City, although it was tall, but the city head still fell in a large area under the attack of one night.

The volunteer divisions that had occupied many parts of the city did not rush to attack during the day, but let the firearms units and even the engineer demolition units of the First and Second Army launch another fierce offensive at the end of the day after a day of preparation, and the defense system of the defenders at the head of the city quickly collapsed.

Unlike many rabbles in other places, the more than 100,000 defenders gathered in Taiyuan City still had the intention and will to start street battles after the fall of the city, which also made Xiao Xuan have some admiration for the opponents in the Shanxi area.

But at this time, everything seems to be out of suspense. Relying on the reconnaissance and command at the head of the city, by concentrating troops during the day to break through each one, after about five days of fierce street battles in the city, the opponent's ability to resist pressure with obvious superiority in forces seems to have reached a certain limit, and more and more men and horses began to choose to surrender at this time. In the course of the fighting, more and more officers and men of the First and Second Armies and even their contingents stood out in actual combat.

(End of chapter)