The city wall of Xiangcheng was much stronger than Kong Youde, the commander of the Third Army of the Hong Dynasty, imagined, and the continuous artillery attack for five days still failed to open the gate of this city.

Although the city walls and gates of the eastern city are dilapidated and look crumbling, it is this crumbling appearance, and the strong enemy stands in front of the tens of thousands of troops of the third army of the Hong Dynasty.

The city was not broken, and according to the siege tactics of the Hong Dynasty army, tens of thousands of troops could not easily attack the city, and could only watch the artillery continue to bombard the city wall like a ruin, waiting for the moment when the city wall collapsed.

"What is he doing to eat, Lao Tzu gave him five days, but he was stunned that he failed to break through the city of Xiangcheng, and delayed the time for Lao Tzu to attack the city in vain!!"

At this time, Hong Chao's Third Army was the most uncomfortable, that is, the commander of the artillery regiment, and even he did not dare to appear in front of the army commander Kong Youde, otherwise he would be scolded by Kong Youde.

But even if he doesn't appear in front of Kong Youde, he will inevitably be hung up by Kong Youde, and his name is always indispensable for a scolding.

"Commander, the wall of Xiangcheng has not been broken for a long time, and the responsibility is not all on Commander Zheng, the Ming Dynasty army has been dealing with us for so long, and there are some means to deal with our army's artillery fire, which is also a normal thing, and it can't be that people will not make progress all the time."

The exhibition of the exhibition at the participating office told the truth and was a way to excuse himself.

"But looking at the position of the city wall of the east city being shelled, presumably the time for the city to break is not far away."

"Humph!"

Zhan Wenbo replied that at least it was true, Kong Youde was angry with others only because every day they stayed in Xiangcheng, then the ammunition and grain and grass they carried would be more depleted, and the pressure on their logistics would also increase.

There were few cavalry in the Hong army, but there were more muskets and artillery units that were more logistical supplies, and their convoys to transport grain and grass would be reduced.

In Shandong and other places occupied by the Hong Dynasty, the people are still in the recovery stage, and the government of the Hong Dynasty still has to use a large amount of grain to support the people, and it will be at least a year or two before they want to requisition and replenish grain and grass on the spot.

Therefore, in the vast majority of the territory of the Hong Dynasty today, except for the people in Liaoning and Hebei, who have been able to achieve self-sufficiency, other places still need to rely on the grain transported from Luzon, Dayuan Island and Qiongzhou to a greater or lesser extent.

Not to mention the existence of a front-line army that needs to be prepared for all battles, and its supplies are directly supplied from Dayuan Island, and a real big war will require a report in advance to request supplies, and then deliver them in place, for more than three months.

And the consumption of 50,000 troops in one day has to be supplemented with thousands of stones of food and materials, and one more day of delay will be more dangerous for the Red Check army.

"Tell me, if he can't open the wall of Xiangcheng after tomorrow, Lao Tzu will remove him!"

Kong Youde's fierce roar resounded through the barracks, and at this time, the commander of the artillery regiment, who was hoarse and operated an artillery piece himself, sneezed several times in succession, making him smile bitterly: "It seems that the commander is scolding me again!" ”

"Boom, boom!!"

"Crackle!"

"Knock !!"

"The city is broken!!

Finally, after scrapping seven or eight artillery pieces and using thousands of shells, the city wall in the east of Xiangcheng, which had long been incomplete, collapsed with a long roar at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The city wall, which was originally several feet vertical, has become a pile of ruins after the dust has settled, and the ruins made of stones and blue bricks have become slopes, which can no longer become a foothold for the Ming Dynasty army, and it will not be able to stop the advance of the Hong Dynasty army.

"Array of musketeers!"

"Prepare for the assault!"

"Forward!!"

In the army of the Hong Dynasty, the infantry camp that had been waiting for five days formed a phalanx of different sizes with the orders of the non-commissioned officers, and then advanced towards the slope defense line of the city wall opened in the east city.

The sound of artillery fire has not stopped, but now the artillery target of the Hongchao artillery regiment has changed from the collapsed city wall to an area within a radius of one or two miles within the city wall.

Not long after, the Hongtang infantry under the cover of the artillery eyes gained a foothold in the Dongcheng Wall, but the officers and men of the Third Army of the Hong Dynasty knew very well that the next battle would be the most difficult.

"The Hong Dynasty army has already entered the city?"

The Xiangcheng City Guard Mansion has now been requisitioned by the Governor Sun Chuanting, and there are few other civil servants in and out except for the Ming military attachés.

"Yes."

Until now, Sun Chuanting has not shown his face in the public, except for those high-level generals in the army, there are more than 100,000 soldiers in Xiangcheng, but they have never known that the commander who is leading the battle at this time is Sun Chuanting.

Instead of Sun Chuanting, it was naturally Zhang Huangyan, the governor of Jiangsu in eastern Anhui of the Ming Army, at this time, his face was full of dust, even if he could already hear the sound of gunfire close to his ears, his heart was calm, and even his eyes were a little more crazy with the passage of time.

"How many Hong Dynasty troops entered the city?"

Sun Chuanting continued to ask, because he couldn't show his face, most of the information he could know was second-hand information told by Zhang Huangyan or detected by the scout camp.

"It's about 20,000 in scale, after all, the city wall of Dongcheng has just been broken, even if the Red View army wants to pour its troops into it, there is not enough space!"

"Unless they break through another wall."

At this time, Zhang Huangyan hoped that the Hong Dynasty army attacking Xiangcheng would have more troops, so that when their Ming army's follow-up support troops were encircled, the opponent's troops that could escape from the encirclement network would naturally be less.

"Let your men and horses fight in the streets, don't deliberately make a defeated posture, so as not to be noticed by the opposing generals."

"It's already come to this point, even if you sacrifice some more soldiers, what's the pity!"

Sun Chuanting's face was expressionless, his heart was like iron and stone, and he told Zhang Huangyan.

"Whoa!"

Before the city attack and defense, the Hong Dynasty army did not send troops to attack the city directly, and the Ming army defending the city also did a turtle with a shrunken head, after being familiar with the shelling, the Ming army defended the city more than 100,000 troops, and the real death in the artillery fire was actually only a few thousand, not even a few thousand.

But in the next street battle, if you really want to follow Sun Chuanting's instructions and compete with the Hong Dynasty's attacking army without any concessions, then the price that the Ming Dynasty army will pay must be based on 10,000.