Early the next morning, the Chuang army launched another attack on Kaifeng City. Pen~Fun~Ge www.biquge.info This attack is still the same old-fashioned, a group of homeless people pushing heavy shield carts, covering the others to approach the city wall, these shield carts were usually destroyed by the city's cannons. But as usual, under their cover, the brigade of the breaking army approached the walls of Kaifeng.

The shield cart stopped not far from the city wall, and at this time, because of the angle, the shield cart could no longer provide cover for too many people, but also because of the angle, it was difficult for the city's artillery to fire at them. The artillery erected on the walls of the city gained a greater range, but also a greater firing space.

A large number of intruders rushed towards the city wall from behind the shield carts, some carrying crudely made ladders, some carrying large shields nailed haphazardly from freshly cut wood, some with hoes to dig the walls, and some with more elaborate swords and shields.

A cloud of blue smoke rose from the walls, and it was the musketeers who were firing downward volleys. With this round of volleys, a corpse suddenly fell under the city, but it was like throwing a few pebbles into the torrent, and the splash disappeared in a flash. More people, stepping on the bodies that had fallen in the past, or who had just fallen, rushed up. The rudimentary ladder was erected, and many people began to climb up the ladder with equally rudimentary weapons.

The Ming army in the city began to throw all kinds of stones, that is, various stones or bricks, downward, especially at the intruders who were climbing the ladder. Or shoot at them with muskets and bows and arrows. The intruders bit their knives in their mouths, held their shields in one hand, and climbed up the ladder with the other, and sometimes, when they were hit by muskets, they immediately fell from the ladder like a ripe apple falling from a tree. In contrast, bows and arrows are much less powerful, not even bricks. Sometimes, the soldiers who broke into the army were able to continue to climb after a few arrows.

In addition to musketeers, archers, and citizens who had been drafted to throw stones, the defenders on the walls were pikemen and shield men, and as the soldiers climbed higher and higher, they began to come into range of these pikemen. The sword and shield bearers first extended their shields a little to block the arrows fired from below, while the pikemen stabbed their spears downwards under the cover of their shields.

This was the most dangerous time for the soldiers who were attacking the city, their feet standing on the dangling ladder, and they had to rely on one hand to hold the ladder to maintain their balance, so they could only use one hand to wave their shields to block the attack of the spear. But the spear stabbed was always fast and heavy, and it was difficult to hold a shield in one hand, and many soldiers were stabbed by the spear and fell off the ladder screaming. The stab wounds of the spear were very serious, and there was little hope of survival for those who were stabbed. Others, although not stabbed by spears, lost their balance and fell headlong from a height of about three feet.

Underneath each ladder, there are two rattan players with large shields, and two crossbowmen under their cover. They used strong crossbows to attack the Ming troops above from below. The crossbows are slow to fire, but they are very powerful, and even if they are fired from the bottom up, the crossbow arrows they shoot can still pose a considerable threat to the Ming army in the city.

With the support of crossbow arrows, although people were constantly being knocked down from the ladders, more ladders were erected, and more people began to climb upwards. Because the Chuang army also carried out a diversion attack in other directions, so on this section of the city wall, the Ming army was able to concentrate far less troops than the Chuang army, so relying on the advantage of numbers, there were still some soldiers who climbed the city wall. However, Chen Yongfu transferred reinforcements in time and killed these intruders who climbed the city wall.

In the midst of such an engagement, some intruders with pockets quietly appeared on the battlefield and quietly stuffed the contents of these pockets into some of the caves they had dug up earlier.

"Is everything stuffed?" Li Zicheng asked.

"It's all stuffed, and the little ones stuffed more than 300 catties of gunpowder into it." Liu Zongmin replied.

"Now that you're ready, let's let the kids all step back and watch the play." Li Zicheng said, "If it really blows up, can the troops entering the city be ready?" ”

"King Chuang, everything is ready, if the city wall explodes, the last general will take the sons up first, close the gap, and then it will be up to King Chuang's arrangement." Liu Zongmin said.

"Just do as you ask." Lee became a self-enlightened man.

After repelling two rounds of attacks in a row, Chen Yongfu was organizing manpower and arrow gunpowder to prepare for a new round of attacks by the invading army, when he suddenly heard a gong sound from the invading army in the distance.

In ancient times, the Chinese army often had the habit of marching with drums and collecting troops, and this was also the case in the army. So this voice made Chen Yongfu let out a long breath.

"It looks like it's been over today, and I don't know how long these rogues will stay outside the city." Chen Yongfu thought.

The strength in Chen Yongfu's hands was not enough to defeat the combined forces of Li Zicheng and Luo Rucai in a field battle. Don't say it's a coalition of the two of them, if it's a field battle, the army in Chen Yongfu's hands can't beat any of them. Now he can only count on Li Zicheng and them to withdraw from the siege due to lack of military rations, or the imperial court will send rescue troops.

Just when Chen Yongfu lowered his head and was thinking about how long the food in Kaifeng Mansion could last, and how long the rogues estimated how long they could last, suddenly the city wall under his feet shook violently, and at the same time, there was a loud noise in his ears. The layer of lime that had been laid on the city wall for epidemic prevention also rose all at once, filling his nose with the smell of lime.

The loud bang also caused chaos among the rest of the city walls. The lime and dust that rose up also affected their vision for a while, which further exacerbated the confusion.

"Don't run around! Be vigilant! Chen Yongfu shouted, and at the same time, he also tried to look towards the city, wanting to see what was going on.

Chen Yongfu was standing on a horse face at this time, which allowed him to see the situation under the city with relative convenience, and he looked in the direction where the loud noise came from, and saw a long tongue of fire spewing out from a hole under the city wall on the right.

……

Liu Zongmin's scientific experiment of using the blasting method to blow up the Kaifeng city wall failed. Because gunpowder is only gunpowder and not explosives after all, this is not only a difference in power, but more importantly a difference in ignition rate. Some explosives that were common in later generations even ignited faster than the speed of sound in the explosion reaction. In such a deflagration, the speed at which gas is produced naturally exceeds the speed of sound. Even without any restraints, explosives can produce powerful explosions when detonated in the right way. But gunpowder is different, the rate of ignition is much lower, so if there is no tight seal, such as igniting it in an open space, it will only burn, not explode. Although Liu Zongmin filled the cave with more than 300 catties of gunpowder, it was difficult to do a good job of sealing these gunpowders. In fact, Liu Zongmin also made the gunpowder pressed firmly, and also piled up some things outside. However, the burning rate of gunpowder is limited, and the gunpowder gases that can be produced per unit time are also limited, and the pressure in the entire cave is relatively slow to rise. As a result, before the gunpowder was burned, the gunpowder gas produced had already pushed away the things blocking the hole. Then I tried to open a pressure relief valve, and all the high-pressure gunpowder gas was sprayed out of the hole. More than 300 catties of gunpowder took dozens of seconds to completely burn, and such a slow "explosion" was naturally not enough to shake the strong city wall of Kaifeng.

"Damn, why do you just breathe fire and don't blow up?" Liu Zongmin looked at the city wall from afar, and there was indeed an explosion just now. But then he saw a long tongue of fire erupt from the mouth of the hole, like a lit firework, and then after a long time the flame was extinguished. In the end, there was nothing other than blackening the wall.

"Haha, Lao Liu, your tricks don't seem to be of much use." Hao Shaoqi shook his head and smiled.

"Who's to say it's useless, look at that big part of the wall, it's all blackened. Catch up tomorrow, Lao Liu, when you still want to play this, tell me first, I will hang half of the pig on the hole you played, and when you play here, the pig I hang there will be smoked......" Another general of the army also said with a smile.

"Erhu, this mouth of yours!" Li Zicheng couldn't help laughing, "Anyway, try it, it's better to blow up, but if you can't blow it up, we also know that we don't know what to do in the future, right?" ”

"King Chuang, this Kaifeng is not easy to fight. And that bullshit court has never sent reinforcements, and now we don't have much military food. Shouldn't we have planned ahead? Another general said.

"Brother Li Yan, what do you have in mind?" Li Zicheng asked.

"King Chuang," Li Yan hugged his fists and said, "Our army is besieging Kaifeng, the purpose is nothing more than these things, the first is to make a big noise, so that the heroes of the world know that the Ming Dynasty is about to fall, prompting them to come to our army." Now our army has besieged Kaifeng for several months, the court can't even send rescuers, the world is shaking, and the people are rumored that the 'eighteen sons are the main artifact', and they should be in the king. The heroes and heroes of the world have returned. After besieging Kaifeng for several months, although our army suffered a lot of damage, the number of troops increased on the contrary. The second is to train troops by besieging Kaifeng, and now that the siege has been on the city for several months, the skills of our army's sons and daughters have greatly improved, and this can be regarded as a realization. The last is to send reinforcements at the Kaifeng siege point to eliminate the reinforcements sent by the imperial court. This, the imperial court can't send reinforcements, but it's not something we can send from Chongzhen. Therefore, the last general felt that our army could turn in other directions. ”