When the two armies face each other, the stronger the side is, the more afraid the opponent is, and the morale will be lowered.

However, the weaker side is ruthless, but it will arouse the blood and brutality of the other party, and the soldiers of the Chu army saw the tragic situation of their companions, and they all had red eyes, and rushed forward with the same hatred.

Gu Zongfu is nearly middle-aged, and he is physically the strongest, wearing heavy armor and acting like the wind, coupled with strong martial arts and rich combat experience, he crashed straight into the crowd of the Qing army's death squad, rushing left and right, and no one could stop him.

Hundreds of soldiers of the Ji'an battalion then arrived, and under the city wall and the Qing army death squad started a chaotic battle, the Qing army was carefully selected elite veterans, the Ji'an battalion was outnumbered, the morale was high, the two armies were comparable to each other, and the battle was extremely fierce.

But this battle only lasted a few minutes, the Qing army suddenly struck a gong on the city, and the death squad fought and retreated, retreating to the Tibetan soldier cave, their target was the few half-cut boats, since they were stopped by the Ming infantry, they did not want to continue to entangle.

Gu Zongfu chased after him, and rushed straight to the Tibetan Soldier Cave with dozens of personal soldiers, at this time, only a small half of the Qing army death squad drilled into the hole, and there were more than 100 people outside, seeing Gu Zongfu coming fiercely, the Qing army general standing at the entrance of the cave fell with a knife in his hand, cut down two Qing soldiers who escaped from the wounded soldiers, and then suddenly closed the door of the cave.

"Holy shit, open the door!"

"Chu Yonggui, you can't fucking die!"

"General Chu, please have mercy on the poor little one, open the door quickly!"

The Qing army death squads blocking the outside were all panicked, some scolded, stepped forward and kicked and smashed, some begged softly, and were so anxious that they wanted to kneel, but Gu Zongfu took the soldiers of the Ji'an battalion to kill them from behind. These Qing troops had no choice but to turn around and face the battle, but they lost their sharpness and were vulnerable, and they were quickly wiped out.

On the tower of the city, Wang Ding commanded another army of the Ji'an battalion to launch a fierce attack on the city walls on both sides.

According to the original plan, the Ji'an battalion should have launched a general attack in the early hours of the morning, but Xu Yong's reinforcements suddenly arrived, and they had been waiting on the city tower, and they had already held their strength after two hours. As soon as Wang Ding's order was given, the soldiers shouted like tigers out of the cage to kill the Qing army.

The Qing army fired arrows, and the two bronze cannons also fired one cannon each, but they did not stop the steps of the Chu army, and the first few rows of Chu troops carried a bamboo row and rope net. rushed to the gap and put it on the opposite wall, and the Chu army behind rushed to the gap on a bamboo row. Engage in a white-knuckle fight with the Qing army.

The momentum of this charge was too strong. The Qing army was defeated and retreated, and it was not until Xu Yong sent a large reserve force that he stabilized his position and held the defensive line in front of the horse road in Xiacheng.

While the battle was raging, the other Chu soldiers were extinguishing the fire, and the three half-cut boats were splashed with fire oil. It burned very violently like three large candles, and although it was protected by a fireproof layer, the half-cut boat was also damaged, and the soldiers of the Chu army inspected it after extinguishing the fire. One of them was damaged and has been scrapped, and the other two can be used after a simple treatment.

Fortunately, two new half-cut boats had been brought up, just to fill the gap, the Chu soldiers extinguished the surrounding embers, cleared all kinds of flammable materials, and the half-cut ships started work again......

At the head of the city of Wengcheng, under the banner of the generals of the green camp, Xu Yong looked anxious, and the generals looked at each other.

The well-prepared counterattack was defeated by the Ming army, and hundreds of green battalion soldiers and young men were also damaged.

There were suddenly a few muffled noises under the city, Sun Bai'an's face changed, and he said to Xu Yong: "It was the same before, Nanban first blew up with gunpowder a few times, but there was not much movement, but in the end it suddenly blew up the city tower. ”

"This is a hole, it's not a big deal, the last moment is the demon law......" Xu Yong is an "expert" in using gunpowder, of course he understands what is going on, he frowned and thought hard, but he has not been able to find a way to crack it.

As the Chu army carried out the second blasting, the hole in the city wall became bigger and bigger, enough for the Chu soldiers to accommodate themselves in it, and the bows and arrows could not shoot them, except for the counterattack from the city gate of the urn city, there was no other way to prevent the Chu army from blowing up the city wall. However, the Chu army controlled the outer city tower and the city gate hole, and the Qing army rushed outward from the urn city, and it would definitely be attacked head-on, and the soldiers were lost in vain.

If these two sections of the city wall are blown up again, the entire city wall defense line will collapse, and Huanggang will not be able to hold it.

Huanggang is about to fall, what should I do now?

……

After the Chu army was arrayed, Wang Kefan was eating.

He hadn't slept for a day and a night, nor had he eaten a complete meal, and when the Qing army's counterattack had just been repulsed, Si Yang in the army brought food and urged Wang Kefan to eat two bites of hot food.

Although he was eating, Wang Kefan was also very busy, listening to the report of the General Staff while eating.

The staff department is a unique establishment of the Chu army, and in other armies, most of the staff members join the army and so on to complete similar work, mainly because the middle and low-level military generals are not good at statistics, intelligence analysis, logistics management, and even writing work, so they can only be done by literati staff.

The general staff of the Chu army was different, all of them were composed of young middle- and lower-ranking officers, but they were required to have a certain cultural foundation, at least to be literate and hyphenated, and their understanding of war and military affairs was more profound and they could play a greater role. But the staff of the Chu army has just been established, crossing the river by feeling the stones, and it has not yet fully entered the role, and in the eyes of most Chu army generals is a group of embroidered pillows, which look good and are not easy to use.

With the continuous expansion of the Chu army, the scope of the war will become larger and larger, and even cover several provinces, Wang Kefan can only control the overall situation, and a lot of specific work must be handed over to the general staff.

According to his request, after the Chu army sent troops this time, the General Staff Department had to submit a report every day to summarize and analyze the battle situation. The first few reports were empty and of little value, but under the guidance of Wang Kefan, the young staff officers showed great enthusiasm for their work, and there were more and more bright spots in the reports.

Today's report is very inspiring to Wang Kefan.

The General Staff Department first pointed out that when attacking the city above the city of Fucheng, it is not advisable to hit the city wall with a crash car, and then use a half-intercepted ship to dig a blasting hole, which is not only time-consuming and laborious, but also difficult to resist the counterattack of the defenders, and will bring a large number of casualties.

Secondly, the General Staff Department built yì to use the cave to blast, the cave is narrow and cramped, full of traps, there is no value of attack, but most of the caves are close to the city wall, if only near the entrance of the hole to dig the blasting hole, it should be another way to attack the city.

"Not bad! You can give it a try. Wang Kefan put down his job and was very interested in this building.

The progress of the Battle of Huanggang was too fast, and after the Qing army's hidden soldier cave was exposed, Wang Kefan only thought about preventing the Qing army from going out of the city to counterattack, but did not think of using the hidden soldier cave to blast the city wall, which was indeed a mistake.

"It's hard to say how effective this is." The staff officer was a little nervous, and quickly explained: "The structure of each city wall, and even each hiding hole is different, and it may not be possible to find a suitable blasting position, and the hiding hole is too dangerous, even if it only captures the area around the entrance of the cave, it will pay a lot of casualties, and if it cannot be used in the end, it will have a great impact on morale." ”

Wang Kefan nodded: "Well, it's okay, you go on." ”

The staff officer was encouraged, and said: "A few of us deduced it, and we felt that Xu Yong had the possibility of abandoning the city and escaping. ”

Wang Kefan was stunned, Xu Yong had just rushed back to Huanggang with reinforcements, how could he abandon the city and escape?

The staff officer said again: "There are only eight or nine thousand Tartars in Huanggang City, and there have been great casualties in the past two days, and they are all tired and weak, if Xu Yong continues to defend to the death, the whole army will definitely be wiped out......

Not bad! Wang Kefan's heart was like lightning, and he figured out the truth.

The Qing army in Huanggang City is all old and weak, Xu Yong's reinforcements are long-distance raids, after a fierce battle, the combat effectiveness is Yan zhòng declined, if the Chu army blows up the city wall, the Huanggang Green Battalion will collapse immediately, in this case, Xu Yong does have the possibility of escaping.

It is true that Xu Yong is the commander-in-chief of Huangzhou, but his troops belong to the field army, and there is no responsibility to defend the territory, and when the war is unfavorable, he will abandon the city and flee, and he will not be severely punished, this guy is very cunning in the war, and in the face of defeat, he will not leave the Huangzhou Green Battalion in the city and wait for death.

Wang Kefan stood up suddenly: "Order the western cavalry camp to closely monitor the north and east gates of Huanggang, if the Qing army tries to break through, they must be dragged down......"

At this time, a horn suddenly sounded from the nest car, Wang Kefan looked up, and the soldiers on the nest car pointed in the direction of Huanggang City and shouted at him.

"Military Gate, Military Gate! Huanggang City is in the water! ”

Walking on the water is a fire.

Wang Kefan hurriedly stepped into the nest car, raised the binoculars, and looked at Huanggang City, where more than a dozen black smoke rose out, and under the black smoke was a raging fire, reflecting half of the sky.

This is not an ordinary misfire, but a deliberate arson, Xu Yong is really going to run away!

……

In the urn city at the south gate of Huanggang, a civil official with a four-rank top knelt on the ground, blocking Xu Yong's face, it was Niu Yan, the prefect of Huanggang. Xu Yong sideways to avoid it, but Niu Yan pounced on him again and hugged his legs, crying.

"Xu Dashuai is merciful! For today's plan, only by fighting to the death with Nangou can we have a glimmer of life, but you must not leave! ”

"Get out of here!" Xu Yong flew up and kicked Niu Yan on his heels: "The surname Niu, if you want to know how to lift, you can withdraw with Lao Tzu's old camp to save the lives of your family, and if you dare to be verbose, don't blame me for turning my face and not recognizing people!" ”

The soldiers took the mount, he scolded and turned over on the horse, ignored the cow and led his generals and soldiers to the east gate in a hurry, and shouted orders as he walked.

"Go, burn down Huanggang City for me, and don't leave a house!" (To be continued......)