Under the cover of the archers and firecrackers of the Chu army, the captive cannon fodder cleared the barricades and finally approached the Huanggang city wall.

Suddenly, a hidden soldier hole was opened under the city wall, and hundreds of Qing soldiers rushed out in a swarm, holding steel knives and slashing wildly, killing hundreds of prisoners and cannon fodder for a while, dozens of corpses fell to the ground horizontally, and others fled the moat.

The cave of hidden soldiers, is a commonly used mechanism secret passage when defending the city, it is more common in the larger city, it is connected to the city by a tunnel, and can send surprise soldiers to attack the outside of the city at any time, and there is a trap mechanism in the cave to prevent the enemy from attacking the city from the cave of hidden soldiers.

This Tibetan soldier cave is located near the attack point of the Chu army, the Qing army's chief general Sun Baian selected more than 100 elite soldiers to form a death squad, and suddenly went out of the city to launch a counterattack, in order to disrupt the offensive rhythm of the Chu army, after the prisoners and cannon fodder were killed, the Qing army death squad did not fall in love, and immediately turned around and retreated into the Tibetan soldier cave.

The Chu army was caught off guard, and indeed suffered a loss, with dozens of casualties and dozens of prisoner cannon fodder, the key is that the last small section of roadblocks has not been cleared, and the follow-up attacking troops can only stop and wait, Wang Kefan sent a team of prisoner cannon fodder to clear the barricades under the city wall.

"It's a bit of a hassle." Wang Kefan muttered in his heart and frowned slightly.

The Qing army in Huanggang was much worse than the Qing army in Xianning, but the guard general Sun Baian was not in a hurry or impatient, the battle was very stable, and the combat effectiveness of the Qing army was brought into play.

With the last section of the barricade cleared, the follow-up troops of the Chu army finally launched an assault on the city walls, and at the same time, Wang Kefan ordered the cannon fodder troops to continue their sorties, filling the moat near the city gate and creating the next point of attack.

The majestic and heavy war drums resounded in the sky, and the earth seemed to tremble with it. Startled a few water birds on the surface of the Yangtze River, chirping and flying into the distance, in the sound of drums, the siege troops of the Yuezhou battalion carried the ladder and shouted forward, rushed to the moat, and rushed to the Huanggang city wall.

The Qing army on Huanggang City also beat the war drums, refusing to be suppressed by the momentum of the Ming army, and with the encouragement of the drums, the panicked Qing soldiers regained their courage and returned to the battle.

With a trumpet. Behind the female wall, a lot of Qing army musketeers emerged at the same time, firing a platoon of guns at the Ming army under the city, when the death squad attacked just now, the Qing army's musketeers reorganized, and this time the sudden volley was well shot. Several unsuspecting Portuguese soldiers were hit and fell to the ground, and several soldiers from the Yuezhou battalion were wounded.

The Ming army under the city immediately counterattacked. Cover the siege of the Yuezhou battalion.

The siege force of the Yuezhou battalion consisted of five hundred people. They are all covered with light armor and cotton armor, and they have a certain defensive ability against bows and arrows, and they rush across the moat like a tide, which is more than ten zhang wide, and the antler obstacles on the front have been cleared, and the charge of these hundreds of Chu troops is unstoppable.

"Whoosh! Sou! Sou! Whoosh! ”

Twenty or thirty lime bottles were thrown down from the city. It was smashed on their heads and bodies and lime powder was splashed everywhere several chu soldiers immediately covered their eyes and shouted. Piles of firewood and oil bottles were thrown down on the city, and after they fell to the ground and were smashed, the fire oil was spilled everywhere, and the Qing army immediately fired a rocket, lighting a wall of fire on the road of the Chu army's advance.

The momentum of the Chu army's attack was blocked, and more than a dozen sandbags were brought from behind the wooden donkey cart to crush the wall of fire, and then continued to charge, and after paying thirty casualties, the ladder was put up on the wall.

In order to gain time, the Chu army used a simple ladder, which was not much different from an ordinary ladder, but it was taller and stronger, and there were two hooks at the front end that could play a fixed role.

In the rear camp of the Chu army, two real ladders are being built at the moment, which can be folded and stretched, and the soldiers standing on the ladder are sent directly to the city, and the bottom of the ladder is equipped with baffles and wheels, which can be pushed by manpower, and the baffles are wrapped with animal skins and other objects, except for being directly hit by cannons and stone cannons, they are not afraid of any attack.

This kind of ladder is not easy to build, and it will definitely delay things if it is to be built when it is needed, so Wang Kefan ordered to prepare early, just in case.

Leading the soldiers to attack the city, is a deputy battalion officer of the Yuezhou battalion, named Zhang Tingshan, this person has been Tan Xiao's friend since childhood, has been practicing martial arts for 20 years, skilled in martial arts, brave temperament, is an uncommon fierce general type officer in the Chu army, he is holding a ghost head knife in his hand, swinging the knife to cut down the feather arrows that come from the shot, loudly urging the soldiers to climb the ladder, two or three personal soldiers lifted a one-person high shield, protecting his left and right.

More than 20 ladders were erected at the head of the city, the soldiers of the Chu army struggled to climb up the ladder, and in a blink of an eye it was already in the middle of the middle, the Qing generals on the city ordered loudly, and dozens of wooden forks suddenly poked out of the battlements of the city wall, and pushed out vigorously on the ladders, and the Ming army under the city struggled to hold the ladders and support their companions to climb the city.

On the city walls on both sides, birds roared, bows and arrows flew wildly, shooting down several Chu troops on the ladder, although these Chu soldiers were shot and arrowed, most of them did not immediately lose their breath, fell to the ground from a height, only to let out a miserable scream, the morale of the Ming army could not help but be depressed.

Zhang Tingshan waved his knife and shouted angrily: "Shi Chang took the lead to go up the ladder, don't fucking watch the brothers in the back, quickly beat the Tartar down!" ”

At his command, a dozen or so soldiers climbed the ladder, and the archers and musketeers standing behind fired together to cover their descent into the city.

In the confrontation shooting above and below the city, the archers and musketeers of the Chu army originally had an advantage, but after continuous shooting, the body of the archers dropped significantly, and the musketeers' guns had many failures, so they did not suppress the Qing army in the city.

The Qing army's firecrackers had just been preparing for a long time, and the sudden outbreak achieved good results, but they were limited, and they were attacked by the Chu army head-on, and they were immediately disrupted again, and they were pressed down, and the Chu army took advantage of the situation to make persistent efforts, and knocked over another row of Qing troops with wooden forks behind the battlements, and several rickety ladders were stabilized again.

Seeing that the wooden fork could not work, the Qing army in the city turned the car, put down the wolf's tooth beater, and the heavy and hard wood was loaded with wolf-tooth-like iron nails, and smashed on the ladder with a sound of wind, and two or three Chu soldiers who were about to reach the battlement were photographed, and they were nailed through their bodies in an instant, blood splashed out, and the soldiers below were all over their heads.

With the wolf's tooth beat, the ladder broke one by one, and fell one by one.

The soldiers of the Chu army on the ladder fell down like dumplings, fortunately, they were mentally prepared, and their bodies could make corresponding protective actions, and they were not seriously injured if they climbed lower, but the soldiers who climbed more than two zhang were a little too high, no matter how they shrunk into a ball, and immediately after falling to the ground, there was a sound of bones shattering, and they couldn't get up anymore with a face full of pain.

More than a dozen ladders fell half, Zhang Tingshan was furious, waved his knife and rushed to another ladder, to personally lead the troops to rush to the city, at this time, the direction of the middle army in the rear of the Chu army, the sound of the gong of Mingjin to collect the troops.

Zhang Tingshan looked back unwillingly, the flag in the direction of the Chinese army waved, and the retreating gong was aimed at the siege troops of the Yuezhou battalion, so he gathered his men and horses and returned to his own position.

As the infantry retreated, the archers and musketeers also retreated to a safe place to rest, monitoring the Qing army from afar, and leaving a unit by the moat to prevent the Qing army from coming out of the cave and destroying the Ming army's flying bridges across the river and wooden donkey carts. After this vicious battle, the Qing army on the head of the city was also very tired, and took the opportunity to sort out all kinds of defensive equipment, replenish fire oil and flying stones, rest and wait for battle, compared with the noisy battlefield just now, the city and the city seemed unusually quiet.

Zhang Tingshan returned to his own formation, and when he saw Wang Kefan, he was full of shame.

"The last general is incompetent, and the city is not broken."

He had a few blood stains on his body, I don't know if it was his own or sticky from someone else's body, he hesitated for a moment, and couldn't help but say: "Just now I was at the moment of victory and defeat, if I was allowed to attack for a while, I would definitely be able to kill the city wall, may I ask why the military gate is Mingjin?" ”

Things gather by like, people by groups, Zhang Tingshan and Tan Xiao have been friends since childhood, and they are also straight-tempered, although they try to restrain themselves in the face of Wang Kefan, the tone of this sentence is still very impulsive.

"General Zhang has worked hard, but the city is well guarded and well-equipped, if he continues to attack, he is afraid that the soldiers will be damaged too much." Wang Kefan said: "I underestimated Sun Bai'an for a while, and I can't blame General Zhang." ”

After a rough count just now, the casualties of the siege troops were nearly 100, plus the losses of archers and firecrackers, a total of more than 160 casualties, but they did not even touch the head of the city. The Qing army was protected by a city wall, and the casualties were estimated to be about 100 people, and the battle loss ratio was too high for the Chu army to bear.

"At this time, the victory and defeat are not divided, why should the military weaken their own morale?" Zhang Tingshan beat his chest with his fist, and said eagerly: "Please let the last general fight for a while, if you can't attack the city wall, I am willing to lead the army to punish you!" ”

"Okay, but in three hours." Wang Kefan pointed to the direction of the south gate of Huanggang and said: "You take a rest first, and attack the south gate in three hours, I have a plan to break the city." ”

This attack was only tentative, although Sun Bai'an's combat methods were rigorous, but the combat effectiveness of the green battalion soldiers under his command was not strong, as long as they were prepared, they could break the city in one fell swoop.

Near the south gate, the cannon fodder captured by the Green Battalion was filling the moat, which was the active direction of the second attack of the Chu army.

In the rear camp of the Chu army, several ladders and half-cut boats under construction have begun to take shape, and they will be completed in three hours.

About twenty miles away from Huanggang City, the heavy troops of the Chu army were coming, they were carrying heavy cannons, and the speed of the march was very slow, but after three hours, they would definitely be able to reach the South Gate battlefield. (To be continued......)