Of course, Cao Wenzhao and even You Shigong also felt that something was wrong on the battlefield soon after the battle, especially when the fierce sound of guns and artillery did not seem to stop in a short period of time, and another battalion of soldiers was also mobilized at this time, and the total number of elite troops near Huguo Temple was nearly 16,000 people, which was equivalent to a total army level.

Although there were as many as a dozen general officers gathered inside and outside the capital, and as many as six general officers of the Ming army in the entire west of the city, the total number of Ming troops who could be compared with those who fought fiercely with the volunteer battalions was only more than 30,000 people, and six battalion leaders who were relatively decent to fight. There are nearly 300,000 horses on paper inside and outside the entire city, and the Ming army that can reach the same level before is only about 70,000 or 80,000 people in fourteen or fifteen battalions, and even among them, there are three, six, nine and so on. The general officers and the three battalions under their jurisdiction outside the Huguo Temple are relatively elite.

However, at this point in the battle, the strength of the defenders in the stronghold of the compound not far from the temple seemed to be as shown before, with only a few dozen archers after the counterattack, but it seemed that it was not inferior to the previous ones. In addition to many strong archers with superb marksmanship, there were also more than 20 more powerful artillery, which immediately plunged the besieging Ming army into a bitter battle.

In order to guard against a possible counterattack by the defenders at any time, the attacking Ming army is in the barracks, although it is expected that the wartime behind it may be disadvantageous, and can only put two general responsible bureaus in the back as a reserve to protect the flank.

Just when the Ming army's "post-copy attack" had just lasted long, fierce gunfire suddenly rang out fiercely from the rear of the Ming army. Because judging from the sound of the gunshot, the enemy army attacking was no more than a thousand or so people, and the direction of attack was not very concentrated, and the team behind should be fully capable of resisting it for a while. But not long after the gunshot, a large number of routs fled.

"General Wu, it's the main force of that strong enemy who is coming!" A pro-soldier said with some panic at this time.

At this time, Wu Sangui still felt a little strange, and couldn't help but say angrily: "What's the matter? Tang Tong and his thousands of elite soldiers couldn't even contain this group of enemy soldiers for an hour? Could it be that those enemy soldiers who are mainly firecrackers are heavenly soldiers? ”

In the perception of people in this era, the troops mainly equipped with firearms may not be without strong soldiers who can fight, but they can only reach the level of ordinary strong soldiers who can fight in battle. Attempting to win 10 against a decent opponent is not possible with even those rare flintstone spears.

However, the fact is so cruel, in the melee impact and attack of this era, the volunteer battalion led by Xiao Xuan was able to kill and wound one person with an average of five to ten bullets, using double-barreled flintlock pistols and some other firearms as supplements, often using loaded ammunition to kill and injure hundreds of enemy soldiers in a fierce fire, and together with the subsequent bayonet assault, it quickly broke the defense line composed of thousands of soldiers. After all, the so-called "warlike soldiers" of this era are far from being as resilient as the mainstream powers in the two world wars.

Just as Wu Sangui was about to mobilize his forces to meet the enemy again, the defenders in the stronghold also launched a counterattack with fierce black powder grenade attacks to cover the armored spearmen and archers who were attacking in close combat, so that the three bureaus in front could not draw many troops to meet the battle.

At this time, Wu Sangui, who had a premonition that something was not good, did not lack battlefield understanding in terms of transfer, and at this time, he could not take care of the team in front of him, so he could only lead a few personal soldiers to retreat back as soon as possible.

In this way, there was no crisis like before. Under the internal and external attacks of the more than 1,000 elite members of the teaching brigade guard battalion and the reserve battalion of the volunteer army, plus the internal and external attacks of the volunteer battalion of about 400 people, the original headquarters of Shangwu Sangui was easily defeated by the 3,000 soldiers and 5,000 auxiliary soldiers whose combat effectiveness was not worse than the previous two main battalions.

After the team reunited, Xiao Xuan's hanging heart did not fall completely, but it was not so nervous. Compared with a team of only a few hundred people, the change of a team of 14,500 people is not purely in quantity, but also in such a street fighting environment, and it can form a tighter formation and have more sufficient carrying firepower, so that the entire team can effectively make full use of firepower.

Before resuming preparations for the operation, the 1,400-strong contingent was also temporarily reorganized, and one or two officers and men of the 120 volunteer battalions, who also had combat effectiveness for the time being, each became a temporary captain, and there were 11 officers and men of various units behind them, one of whom was responsible for raising the shield in front with a steel shield to cover and at the same time carrying a surplus double-barreled flintlock steel gun, and the other 10 people and two people were responsible for coordinating the loading of a three-tael-shell recoilless gun, and the loaded gun would be fired forward in a concentrated manner. At the same time, if necessary, the loaders of the 3rd to 6th platoons were also responsible for launching an assault forward with black powder grenades.

Of course, this formation also has its drawbacks: although the offensive ability in one direction is fierce, it is relatively weak on the flanks and behind, and the whole team must constantly and bravely attack without easily falling into the siege of the opponent to have any hope of achieving a breakthrough before the sky clears. In order to effectively coordinate and cover each other, the whole team was also divided into three side-by-side battalions in a vertical situation to carry out offensive assaults, and if necessary, separate operations.

It seemed that the time had reached the third watch, and it was not too far away from the dawn when the sun was bright, and the whole team had to act quickly and attack as fast as possible. The target did not seem to be difficult to determine, that is, the direction of the Imperial City where the enemy's Hongyi artillery group was firing fiercely, although there may be a heavy concentration of enemy troops, and a team of 1,000 or hundreds of elites may encounter danger of one kind or another, but the combat value seems to be significantly greater.

Xiao Xuan made a decision just by relying on the army's previous combat performance: when the outcome is unpredictable, but with a little certainty, the team should be allowed to develop a fighting style that dares the enemy to fight hard battles, rather than a negative fighting style. When the combat effectiveness of the entire contingent reaches a certain level, the problems that may be encountered in the passive situation of command will not be so great. Just like those rookies pecking each other on the eastern and southern fronts of World War I, it is easy for the opponent to collapse easily with the advantage of encirclement, and the Japanese army on the battlefield behind the enemy in the War of Resistance or the German army on the Eastern Front in the late stage of World War II will pay a huge price to the opponent even if they fall into passivity. Therefore, the direction in which the team relaunched the attack, which was also the direction where the enemy's artillery was most powerful, launched an attack towards the place where the enemy troops were heavily concentrated on the west side of the imperial city.

(End of chapter)