The snake head of Longxugou must have understood what the Zhou army was going to spend money to do in the city, but what did it matter to him, the emperor had changed in this world, and he still had to live the life he deserved, and no one had to think more about himself.

He said that he was willing to help Zhou Jun, but this price could not be calculated according to the price of one or two people before, he asked for a fixed price, 100,000 taels, and it was successful, not to pull down, not a single point less.

100,000 taels, it's just too cost-effective, even if the price is 1 million, Zhou Lang will probably agree.

It's just that he has heard of the notoriety of this dragon beard ditch, and he can't help but think of the Indian god river and the Ganges River in later generations, and Zhou Lang was nauseous for no reason.

He felt disgusted to ask a soldier to drill such a ditch. In particular, even if they entered Longxugou, it was only an outer city, and the people living in it were ordinary people, and if the Manchu magnates didn't care, they could have abandoned the outer city and retreated to the inner city to protect the banner people and their emperor.

But the officer was very active, this was a rare opportunity, after several months of shelling, the gate tower in front of the city wall collapsed, the city gate was even blown up, the bricks on the city wall were peeled off, revealing the loess inside, but it still did not collapse, maybe it only took a rain, and the city wall made of loess rammed would fall, but who knows when it would rain, and what if the rain did not collapse.

The Qing army in the city was not stupid, and after the city gate was blown up, it was found that they had already blocked the city gate hole with bricks and stones. They are constantly repairing the gaps in a small area in the city, every day the Zhou army shelled out one or two small openings outside the city, or the small openings in the upper part of the city wall that cannot be used, the Qing army took the opportunity to repair them at night, and the next day they saw that they were either full of bricks and stones, or they were full of sacks, and even larger gaps, and they would use the soil with glutinous rice to tamp again.

Entering the city from the water pass is the only way, and although the Longxu ditch is dirty, the officer said that the other water passes are not clean either. These water gates communicate with the water of the moat outside the city, and during the Yuan Dynasty, when the water was abundant, they could also be used as a transportation channel, but in the Qing Dynasty, they basically became sewage channels in the city.

As for the problem of not being able to attack the inner city, the officers believed that as long as the outer city was occupied, it would be a huge progress and a heavy blow to the morale of the Qing army. Moreover, they believed that the wall between the inner and outer city was certainly not as thick as the outer city wall, and it was easier to attack the inner city from the outer city than to attack the inner city wall directly from the east, west, and north.

Maybe the officers are just out of a kind of honor, they don't care about the inner city and the outer city, as long as they enter it, whoever can get a reputation of being the first to attack the city of Beijing, let alone drilling stinky ditches and drilling dung tanks, doesn't care.

After thinking about it for a while, Zhou Lang also agreed.

This defect of openness must have been thought of by the defenders of the city, and even by the builders of the city. Because according to the results of the reconnaissance, the defense of the regular water gate is also relatively stronger. At the entrance to the water of the city wall, dense iron lattices are placed, which cannot block the entry of flowing water, but can block people from entering and leaving. Not to mention wartime, even in peacetime, there are patrol soldiers every day to check the condition of the inner iron lattice fence. An observation hole was also designed specifically from inside the castle. There are also sluices inside and outside the water gate, and once closed, the water can't pass through, let alone people. Without the help of the thieves, a storming is no different from a siege, and the space is still small, so under normal circumstances, there is almost no possibility of breaking through the city from the water pass.

During the period of the Eight-Nation Coalition in history, there was a successful case of stealing into the water pass, that time it was in broad daylight, and there were no soldiers guarding it at all, but a group of ordinary people who watched the excitement, and the foreigners had time to take pictures and record this moment. But now is not the time for the Eight-Nation Alliance, and the Qing army in the city has obviously not been abolished to that extent.

Zhou Lang considered that even if he bought the regular water pass, there would be fewer people sent in, and it would be easy to be blocked by the Qing army. Although Longxugou Shuiguan is also defended, this is the southern city wall of the outer city, which is the farthest distance from the inner city, and Longxugou has always been dirty, so the defense force here is weak. The people who controlled the Longxugou Water Pass were not even those officers, the head of the snake was simply a local snake, and it only gave the defenders a little benefit, so they let people in and out freely, and the soldiers did not care.

With the cover of the snakehead, it will be much easier to occupy Longxugou, and then take Yongding Gate from inside and outside, as long as the army enters the city, it is not afraid of the Qing army resisting.

Because to enter the city, and then to attack the city gate, so the combat task is very heavy, in the scramble of many officers, this "glorious" task was grabbed by Ma Dalei, he will personally lead the commander's cuirassiers, abandon the horse into the pass, and then through the Temple of Heaven, from behind the attack Yongding Gate.

After the plan is determined, it will be done that night, because the Qing army has communicated with the matter of buying the water pass, who knows if there will be a loyal one among these corrupt officers, once it is discovered by the Qing army's high-level, it will inevitably be transferred to guard the water pass, and there are only a few water passes in Beijing City, as long as you use your heart, it is not difficult to defend.

So in the middle of the night, Mardale selected a thousand soldiers and officers with the best physical fitness and went into the city with him.

There are defenders in the city, but they are used to the movement inside and outside the water pass at night, and know that this is a snake head doing business, and they can benefit from it anyway, no one cares about this kind of thing.

Ma Dalei led people to quietly cross the moat with the sheepskin raft provided by the snake's head, and then drilled into the culvert of the water mouth, and could only bend over, most of his body was in the stinky water, barely able to show his head, and he had to keep his mouth shut, because the water surface rippled straight to his mouth as soon as he moved, even if he couldn't drink the stinky water, his nose was on the water, and the pungent smell went straight to his brain.

But from Ma Dalei to the soldiers at the bottom, no one complained, because this opportunity was not easy to come by, and Ma Daren and other generals rolled up their sleeves to fight before they seized the opportunity. Now as long as they endure the stench and drill out of this culvert, they will enter the city of Beijing!

But why is this culvert so long!

No wonder the cannon can't blow up this wall!

The foundation of the Beijing city wall in the Ming and Qing dynasties is 24 meters thick, and the culvert through the wall is of course long.

Finally through the culvert, everyone gasped for air.

Mardale gasped and gave the order for everyone to check their weapons, this time not being able to bring rifles. Each man carried two sabers and a bundle of gunpowder wrapped in oiled paper, which could be used to blast open the gates if necessary.

Seeing that everyone was ready, Mardale nodded, and one of his men immediately drilled into the culvert again.

Soon the camp outside the city saw people waving torches under the city walls, and understood that they had succeeded, and that it was not early in the day, and it was almost dawn.

There is no time to lose.

The Zhou military camp outside the Yongding Gate immediately opened the camp gate, and a cannon that was originally fixed on the gun position in the camp was pulled out, and there were not many cannons, because the Zhou army in the south of the city was an auxiliary force, and they were only equipped with a small number of light infantry guns, this kind of infantry heavy artillery, each camp only had four guns for defense, and special artillery operations were dispatched.

Due to the suddenness of the incident, it was too late to transfer the cannon from the artillery position in the east of the city, because Zhou Lang never thought of entering the city from Longxugou, and he sent a lot of heavy artillery outside Chaoyang Gate and Desheng Gate, but not outside Yongding Gate.

Therefore, only these few guns can be effective, and the fifteen small-caliber infantry guns equipped by the three armies are also concentrated, and these infantry guns may not be useful for siege, and can be used to cover and attract attention.

The cannons were pushed into range, and at this time, it was estimated that the cuirassiers of the handsome battalion in the city also arrived at the attack position, and immediately ordered the artillery to be fired.

The sound of artillery is the signal!

Ma Dalei had already passed through the Temple of Heaven and was ambushed under the base of the wall near the city gate, hiding in the shadows. Not far away is the Qing army guarding the city gate, and I am afraid that there are more defenders in the gate tower on the city. As soon as the cannon sounded, Ma Dalei shouted, drew his saber and rushed forward, and the soldiers only followed.

The Qing army outside the city gate was killed by surprise, they were the green battalion under the jurisdiction of the Nine Cities Soldiers and Horses, the equipment and military salaries were much worse than the eight banners, and the morale was very low.

The sound of cannons is also a frightening bow!

Suddenly woke up the Qing army defending the city, Ma Dalei took the Qing army at the city gate, and planned to climb the city from the stairs, but suddenly the gate next to the stairs opened, there was a door, and the frightened Qing soldiers rushed out of the door, and there were hidden soldiers under the stairs on both sides of the city gate!

If Ma Dalei had studied the Nanjing City Wall well, he would not have been surprised.

Ma Dalei immediately shouted, it's too late to get into the city, let's kill these Qing soldiers first, these Qing soldiers were also awakened, the south of the city has been quiet for a few months, why did they suddenly fire the cannons, they really didn't expect it. ran out in a panic, and was slashed and killed by a group of evil men, and nearly a thousand defenders of the city broke up again.

At this time, Ma Dalei ordered several officers to lead people to the city, and the enemy army had already appeared in the city, obviously with the idea of going to the city gate, not seeking to be able to capture the city gate tower, blocking the Qing army on the city tower to go down to the city to support. Mardale now had to open the city gates quickly, as long as the city gates were opened and the drawbridge was lowered, he only needed to hold on for a moment, and his commander's cavalry would be able to come to support.

But to open the city gate he was stunned, the Qing army filled with sand and stone sacks to block the city gate hole, Ma Dalei couldn't take care of it, ordered the soldiers to move away quickly, at this time everyone is really a desperate labor, some people alone just picked up the sack and threw it aside.

But after emptying the sacks, I was even more disappointed that the hole in the city gate was full of bricks. I don't know where the blackened bricks came from.

There's no time to delay, just keep pulling the bricks. The sky has already brightened, Ma Dalei's men have been fighting with the Qing army at the staircase of the city, and the other party will not be able to get down for a while, but on the street not far behind him, the sound of horses' hooves began to appear, and the other party has reinforcements.

Ma Dalei sent another 200 soldiers to block the Manchu cavalry, but it was too late, so he immediately ordered the rest of the men to take out the gunpowder, and then tied the gunpowder packs from their waists one by one, and then tied them together in twos and threes, and stuffed them into the gaps where the broken bricks were opened, and connected all the gunpowder packs together with leads.