The Ji'an battalion attacked the city and retreated, not only did the previous achievements be wasted, but the broken soldiers also lost more than a dozen, and the soldiers were all angry.

They found Wang Ding and Gu Zongfu to complain, but they were scolded by Gu Zongfu.

", the other battalions are not ready, so we rely on ourselves to fight hard, and we don't fight the Ji'an battalion yet?" He pointed at the dense Qing army at the head of the city and said, "Look at it, if you don't retreat, it will definitely be all over." ”

"Since you're not ready, why do you let us fight this fight?" Some people are still not convinced.

"So what?" Gu Zongfu glared, and said in a vicious voice: "The Yuezhou camp has been fighting for a while, and no one has said anything, you guys are arguing!" ”

He and Wang Ding knew in advance that this was a feint attack, and secretly prepared to retreat, but they concealed it from all the middle and lower-level officers in the Ji'an battalion, otherwise the morale of the soldiers would not be strong, their morale would be low, and they would not even be able to attack the city, and they would not be able to contain the Qing army.

The real attack is about to be launched, and before the heavy punch strikes, there is a contraction preparation, so the Ji'an battalion has to be withdrawn, Gu Zongfu has been in battle for a long time, and of course he understands this truth.

However, Wang Kefan had just issued an order to let the Ji'an battalion return to the camp to rest and transfer the mountain battalion to the main attack, and Gu Zongfu couldn't get the opportunity to make meritorious contributions, so he lost his temper with his subordinates.

But he could not object, the Ji'an battalion crossed the river overnight, and then went into battle, and there was no rest for a day and a night, but after the Tongshan battalion arrived, it rested for two hours, and this rotation was normal.

The winter days are short, and it is almost evening at this time, and the soldiers of the Tongshan Battalion and the Gongyi Battalion are sharpening their knives and guns, preparing for night battles.

Gu Zongfu asked Wang Ding to bring the Ji'an camp back to the back camp, but he stared at a pair of bloodshot eyes and stayed in front of the battle to watch the battle. Night battles are completely different from daytime, and they are more difficult for both the offensive and defensive sides to master, and this rare opportunity to observe cannot be missed.

The preparation time of the Chu army was very short, the sky was slightly darkened, and the nest car of the Chinese army was hung with two gas death wind lanterns, and the standard-bearer in charge of the order stood under the lamp, and every move could be seen clearly, and the Tongshan battalion and the Gongyi battalion prepared hundreds of torches, and also piled up more than a dozen firewood piles with firewood, grass and wood.

On the Huanggang city wall, the Qing army also lit torches and lanterns.

Wang Kefan transferred the prisoners and cannon fodder to the West Gate. To open the way for the Tongcheng camp and the Puqi camp, if the south gate cannot be broken tonight, tomorrow will be attacked from both sides, multiplying the pressure on the Qing army.

This is a bit of a "fueling" tactic, but it's all about saving time. Reduce casualties.

The cavalry battalions of Ti Zhaorong and Wang Meng were already in place, and they were not directly involved in the siege. Rather, it is responsible for battlefield vigilance. In addition to monitoring the Qing army in Huanggang City, several small groups of cavalry were also sent to search north along the banks of the Yangtze River to check the movements of Qing reinforcements, Wang Kefan knew very well that with the passage of time. Reinforcements from the Qing army could arrive at any time.

As soon as the preparations were completed, the Chu army attacked again with drums, and the archers and firecrackers attacked first, firing a continuous volley at the city. Extinguish all the torches and lanterns, and at the same time send wooden donkey carts to transport firewood and grass, and light bonfires along the moat to light the besieging troops.

The lights were suddenly extinguished, and there was immediately some chaos on the Huanggang city wall, but Sun Bai'an was quite talented in governing the army, and soon lit some torches, sent a military law team to suppress the young and strong soldiers, and restored order, under his command, the Qing army opened guns and arrows to intercept the vanguard of the Chu army.

Night gradually covered the land, and it was lit up again by the flames of war.

A few neighing horses came, a thousand Xiliang cavalry pressed forward five hundred steps, the flank of the Chu army was well guarded, the infantry of the Gongyi battalion was in array to suppress the position, Wang Kefan waved his hand and ordered, the war drum suddenly sounded, the red flag on the nest car rolled, and the Tongshan battalion launched a charge.

At the top was the wooden donkey cart, and the "drivers" of the carts were replaced by Chu soldiers, who trotted fast all the way and rushed towards the moat.

In the daytime battle, the Qing army's artillery was damaged by nearly half, and the rest were hidden in the dead corners of the city wall, and they did not dare to appear as treasures, but at the critical moment, Sun Baian did not hesitate to use the cannons, and several cannons were pushed up the battlements and fired at the Ming army one after another.

The artillery of the Chu army immediately returned fire, and it was very difficult to directly hit the artillery of the Qing army, but as long as it was near the artillery, it could kill and injure the artillery of the Qing army and destroy the ammunition of the Qing army.

The archers of the Chu army and the fire guns designed together, and the torches and lanterns on the head of the city were extinguished a lot in an instant, and three rows of feather arrows and three rows of guns were shot in a row, and the drums behind the Chu army suddenly became urgent, and the attacking troops of the Tongshan battalion were divided into three groups, shouting and rushing across the moat.

Tongshan Battalion is one of the starting troops of the Chu Army, Zhou Guodong was originally a Tsing Yi talent, and the ability to lead troops to fight was taught by Wang Kefan, so the management and training method of Tongshan Battalion is the closest to that of later generations, known for its courage and good fighting, and almost in the blink of an eye, he rushed to the city wall.

The Qing army on the city wall has not yet shot a few arrows, the simple ladder of the Tongshan camp has been set up at the head of the city, although the model ladder and the half-cut boat behind are moving slowly, but they are unexpectedly not out of touch, under the cover of the front army, they have already crossed the moat, and they are a stone's throw away from the city wall gate, Gu Zongfu looked excited, and nodded again and again.

It is the same rushing city, the Tongshan camp is more resolute, more decisive, and more courageous than the Ji'an camp, as if with an invincible momentum, and does not put the high Huanggang city wall in their eyes. Of course, Gu Zongfu knew that this was not a simple matter of bravery, but that the command of the Tongshan battalion was smoother, and the cooperation between the soldiers was more skilled, just like a knife swung by a martial arts master with all his might, it was naturally faster, more fierce, and more lethal than ordinary people.

After the Chu army formation, the drums became heavier and heavier, more and more urgent, more than a dozen small drums and the Chinese army drums beat together, earth-shattering, far away in the night, Wang Kefan was wearing gold armor, wearing a big red cloak behind his back, sitting on a war horse, the soldiers on both sides lit dozens of torches, illuminating the surroundings of the Chinese army, so that the whole army officers and soldiers could see the commander in the front line commanding the battle.

The simple ladder took the head of the city, the model ladder also came to the city wall, the Chu soldiers boarded the ladder and launched an attack on the city wall, a heavy crash car finally arrived, more than a dozen Chu soldiers pushed the crash wood together, and hit the city wall one after another, dozens of shield bearers stood beside them, holding a high-level iron tire shield to block the arrows and lead bullets shot by the Qing army.

The Huanggang city wall is composed of hard cooked soil embryos, and there is a wall brick outside to protect it, but in the artillery battle during the day, the city wall was damaged in several places, and the crash car chose one of the positions, the wall bricks here have been blown away, and the soil embryo on the outside side was also shaken, and under the continuous impact of the collision, a hole more than half a foot deep soon appeared.

In the direction of the city gate, Zhou Guodong personally commanded, two hundred Chu army elites rushed to the city tower first, they directly seized the city gate hole, while avoiding all kinds of attacks on the city tower, but also to prevent the Qing army from going out of the city counterattack.

Immediately afterwards, two sturdy half-cut ships attacked under the city gate, one after the other, first poked their bows into the city gate hole, unloaded a few boxes, and then leaned against the left and right city walls, and began to dig separately.

The city tower is the key point of defense of the Qing army, immediately with flying stones and oil to attack the half-cut ship, heavy stones smashed on the baffle, constantly can hear the sound of bamboo breaking, the oil sparsely splashed on the half-cut boat, the Qing army shot down a row of rockets, immediately caused a raging fire, the flames jumped up more than half a person high.

The soldiers of the Chu army immediately rushed up to extinguish the fire with sandbags, and the archers and firecrackers shot at the city tower together, and the cannons of the Chu army also turned their muzzles and bombarded the nearby Qing army, trying to cover the half-cut boats.

Under the half-cut boat, the Chu soldiers struggled to wave their pickaxes and dig the city wall, at the same time, the Chu army in the city gate hole was also doing the same work, they did not have the Qing army to harass, the progress was faster, and the twist kept pointing beside them, digging a few small holes in the city wall first.

Although the city wall of Huanggang is very hard, the soldiers of the Chu army are constantly changing shifts, and the soldiers in charge of digging the wall are all maintaining a full body, and several washbasin-sized holes are gradually formed.

General Bamboo, is the Gongyi Battalion repair equipment made of the bomb, these bamboo generals have been modified by twist by hand, and increased the weight of the potion, he carefully chose the angle, repeatedly adjusted the position of General Bamboo, sealed the outside with earth and stones, ordered the soldiers to avoid aside, and then lit the fuse.

"Bang!"

The sound of the explosion was dull, but it caused a loud echo in the hole of the city gate, and a stream of gravel dust shot out of the hole, and the twister did not wait for the dust to clear, and went forward to check it for himself.

"Alright, let's dig it on, dig the left side a little bigger, and knock out the lump of hard dirt on top of it......" he finished arranging, and then turned to the next hole, repeating the same job.

A round of blasting was completed in the city gate hole, and after excavation, several large holes three or four feet deep soon appeared, and the progress of the half-cut ship outside was slower, and the twister waited for a while before rushing out to drill into the half-cut ship and complete the blasting himself.

After the Chu army's formation, two more half-cut boats were pushed up, these two half-cut boats were extremely huge, and the hull was equipped with a strong supporting plate, on which were placed several coffins filled with gunpowder.

Blasting the city wall with gunpowder is the Chu army's housekeeping skills, Huanggang City is strong, and the city has to rely on gunpowder to break the city at the critical moment, but due to the urgency of time, the Chu army has no time to dig tunnels, so they directly transport the gunpowder coffin to the city. (To be continued......)