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The battlements were shattered by cannonballs, the walls were littered with brick shards, and dark red blood spots were everywhere, while the defenders at the head of the city sat under the battlements, shields above their heads, protected from being injured by flying masonry. As for the cannonballs that flew over, no matter how strong the shield was, it was useless, as long as it was rubbed, it would be a broken bone and tendon.

In the past few days, more than 100 Ming troops have been hit by shells, and the flesh and blood smashed are blurred and inhuman, and the hearts of those who see it are miserable.

At present, the Qing army is only attacking with artillery, and maybe it will attack the city directly at any time, and the defender Jin Shenghuan did not dare to slack off, and ordered the defenders of all departments to strictly guard the city wall to prevent the Qing army from attacking at any time.

"General, there is a crack in the city wall in the northwest corner, about a foot wide, I'm afraid it won't last long."

On the enemy platform at the north gate of the city, Jin Shenghuan was holding a clairvoyant mirror to observe the movements of the Qing army outside the city, and one of his subordinates hurriedly ran to pray.

"Ordered people to prepare bricks, wood and stones, and once the city wall was collapsed by the Qing army, it was immediately filled with bricks and wood. Ma Yingkui was ordered to lead his troops to the northwest corner of the city wall, and once the city wall was collapsed, it was necessary to withstand the attack of the Qing army. ”

Jin Shenghuan commanded in a deep voice.

"Yes!" The men hurried to the herald.

With Jin Shenghuan's order, the young and strong people in the city were mobilized, carrying bricks, stones and wood to the northeast corner of the city. Although there were only 15,000 defenders in the city, under the mobilization of the Sizhou government, the people in the city were mobilized to assist the army in defending the city.

"Does the Qing army want to use artillery to collapse Sizhou?" Looking at the artillery position of the Qing army outside the city, Jin Shenghuan muttered.

The Qing army had a lot of artillery, there were about 40 red-coated cannons alone, and hundreds of small and medium-sized types of artillery, but it would take at least several days to collapse the city wall by artillery. After all, the walls of Sizhou are all brick walls, which are very strong.

Jin Shenghuan guessed correctly, Duoduo really wanted to use artillery to collapse the city wall. In ancient times, there were only a few siege methods, such as cloud ladder siege, ramming the city gate with a hammer, or piling up earth and the city wall flush and then killing the city, or digging tunnels to attack. All of these and these will take a long time, and the casualties will be heavy, and the besieging side will often pay several times or even dozens of times the casualties of the defenders. Moreover, the defenders of the city have countermeasures against these means, so the effect is not very good.

Therefore, in ancient times, sieges often took a long time, and it was common to besiege cities for months or even a year and a half.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, with the continuous appearance of firearms, especially the appearance of powerful red-coated cannons, the means of siege were much simpler. The red-coated cannon weighed thousands of catties, and the cannonballs weighed more than ten catties, flying from a place several miles away, carrying a huge kinetic energy that was enough to open the stele and crack the stone, and there was no problem at all in collapsing the city wall.

Being able to collapse the city wall with artillery is naturally much stronger than the siege of the ladder ants, and Duoduo is unwilling to spend the precious Eight Banners soldiers in the siege battle.

"Right now, the walls have been torn apart, and I'm afraid it won't last long. Next, the Qing army will definitely fill the moat so that it can attack the city of Sizhou. Jin Shenghuan muttered.

Sizhou city is located on the north bank of the Huai River, the moat is connected with the Huai River, the moat is several zhang wide, if you don't fill the moat, don't want to attack the city.

Jin Shenghuan guessed very accurately. Just as the northeast corner of Sizhou was torn apart by shells, the Qing army captured a large number of civilians from the countryside in Sixiali. Then, with the surrendered green battalion soldiers and civilians as coolies, braved the rain of arrows and shells at the head of the city, and began to fill the water.

Countless people were forced by knives and guns, carrying earthen baskets and crying to Sizhou City, throwing earth and stones into the moat. At the same time, thousands of people were digging ditches outside the city. First cut off the connection between the moat and the Huai River with earth and stones, and then use a ditch to divert the water in the moat, which is the method of the Qing army to cross the moat and attack the city.

Under the orders of the generals, the Ming army at the head of the city attacked the people who were filling in below, and arrows and firebolts rained down into the ranks of the people, and each arrow and projectile would take away a life.

Hundreds of people were shot dead and wounded under the city, and the blood flowed into the moat and dyed the entire river red, and the Ming troops at the head of the city had red eyes, but they had to attack their comrades under the city.

"Run! Desperately with the Mantars! At the head of the city, a Ming soldier with red eyes screamed at the people under the city, but who could hear his words. Even if you hear it, what can you do? Behind them, there were fierce Mantars staring with butcher knives, no people dared to escape, the heads of those who escaped were cut off and hung on the trees by the Huai River, and the corpses were thrown into the river to feed the fish.

As long as three baskets of soil are thrown into the moat, the Manchurian lord will let himself go, and he will have a chance to survive, rather than fleeing at the risk of being killed, it is better to obey the Manchurian lord's orders to fill in the city, if the fate is good, he will not be shot by the officials and soldiers at the head of the city, and he can live, which is the mind of most of the people who fill in the city.

Under the coercion of the Qing soldiers, the captured people filled the moat regardless of casualties, and slowly the moat and the Huai River were separated by earth and stones.

Then the ditch and the moat were dug through, and the water in the moat was slowly drained away. Looking at the gradually emptying moat, Jin Shenghuan knew that the fierce battle would soon begin.

While the people were filling in the ditch and digging the ditch, the red-coated cannons of the Qing army were still roaring tirelessly, thousands of shells smashed on the city wall and fell to the head of the city, the crack in the northwest corner was getting bigger and bigger, and the entire Sizhou city was crumbling.

Liu Zhaoji came to the head of the city and stood beside Jin Shenghuan. After retreating from Guzhen, only more than 500 of Liu Zhaoji's thousands of men escaped with him. After escaping to Sizhou, he was stopped by Jin Shenghuan and ordered him to assist in defending Sizhou. Jin Shenghuan had a warrant from Chen Yue, the governor of Jiangbei, and the Ming army in the entire Fengyang Mansion had to obey his command, and Liu Zhaoji also had to obey.

However, seeing that Sizhou was about to be unsafe, Liu Zhaoji was worried, he was not afraid of fighting or dying, but he did not want to see his brothers die with him.

"General Jin, when will Hou Ye's reinforcements arrive?" Liu Zhaoji asked.

"Reinforcements? What reinforcements? Jin Shenghuan glanced at Liu Zhaoji lightly and asked coldly.

"No reinforcements?" Liu Zhaoji exclaimed. Seeing that the city wall is about to collapse, if the reinforcements do not come again, no one in the Ming army in Sizhou City will be able to escape!

"The order Hou Ye gave me was to defend Sizhou and kill and injure the Qing army as much as possible, as for the reinforcements, Hou Ye did not mention it."

Jin Shenghuan's words made Liu Zhaoji desperate.

"There are no reinforcements, hehe......"

Liu Zhaoji laughed miserably.

"What? Is Liu Zongbing desperate? Xuyi's Zhang Tianfu brothers have already chosen to take refuge in Mantar, and Liu Zongbing might as well follow their path! ”

Jin Shenghuan said lightly, but there was a slight chill in his words, and with his words, several soldiers stared at Liu Zhaoji with their weapons in their hands.