"Qianhu, Qinggou wants to run over the wall!"

Not long after the ignition was fired, Song Erniu, who was the chief flag soldier of the former battalion, saw a ladder suddenly set up on the wall of the backyard of the Li Mansion, although the ladder only came out a little, and people who were not careful could not see it at all. But Song Erniu looked carefully, although he didn't see anyone on the ladder coming up, but he judged that this was the Qing army inside who wanted to run over the wall, so while ordering his subordinates to be on guard, he hurried over to report to Zhou Shixiang.

After listening to Song Erniu's report, Zhou Shixiang snorted coldly and waved his hand at Song Erniu: "They can't run, pass on my order, the engineer battalion will monitor the gate, and the rest of the teams will guard the courtyard wall in sections, as long as they see someone inside, they will kill me!" ”

"Yes, Chiho!" Song Erniu responded violently and took a few of his subordinates to each team to give orders.

After Song Erniu left, Zhou Shixiang saw that the fire was not big, and there were not many flammable materials around the Li Mansion, and the courtyard walls in the mansion were all made of bricks and stones, and there was no way to make the fire bigger in a short period of time.

Zhou Shixiang didn't want to waste his time on these remnants of the green battalion, so he thought about it and asked someone to pick up some water to sprinkle on the fire. After pouring water, the fire on the fire suddenly weakened, but then there were strands of white with yellow in them. Thick smoke rose from the fire. The wind helped the smoke, and in an instant, the sky over the Li Mansion was shrouded in thick smoke.

"If you don't surrender, you'll choke these shit!"

Ge Yi saw that the smoke was smoking into the courtyard, and the green battalion soldiers inside were shouting, and he could vaguely hear someone coughing loudly, and he couldn't help it. Because of Zhou Shixiang's strict order, he did not dare to slack off, and led his soldiers to hold spears and stare firmly at the courtyard wall in front of them.

On the side of the gate, the team of sappers transferred from the engineer battalion also stared at the gate one by one with the earth-shaking thunder as if they were facing a great enemy, and the general flag of the team leader did not ask Zhou Shixiang for instructions to attack directly with the earth-shaking thunder, but Zhou Shixiang knew that the earth-shaking thunder was okay to kill and injure the Qing soldiers, but it was not possible to blow up the door, because the earth-shaking thunder was made of bamboo, and the amount of gunpowder in it was insufficient, and the power of the explosion was not enough to blow up the big iron gate of the Li Mansion. Unless there is an explosion like the one that blew up the walls of Luoding, which is obviously not possible, because it consumes more gunpowder.

There are not many existing earth-shaking thunders in the battalion, each one is a treasure in the eyes of Zhou Shixiang, and in the case of no gunpowder supply, there will be one less with one, and Xinxing Town is just the first threshold to go south to Xiangjiang, not even a nail, if this is used too much, the battle behind it will not be able to fight, after all, the current strength of the Taiping Battalion is much worse than that of the Qing army, and even weaker than the green battalion with the same strength.

If you want to win the battle behind and successfully bring the Taiping Camp to Xiangjiang, you must rely on the earth-shaking thunder that is more lethal than bows and arrows and firearms, so you can't use it if you can, use it less if you can, and never use it indiscriminately.

Zhou Shixiang rejected the proposal to blow up the door with earth-shattering thunder, and only ordered this team of sappers to keep a close watch, and if they found that the green battalion soldiers inside rushed out of the gate, they threw two or three to blow up their determination to break through, and it was still necessary to rely on broadswords and spears to completely solve the battle

The Taiping camp outside set fire to the fire, the door that wanted to blow up the door, the courtyard wall that guarded the courtyard wall, and the green battalion soldiers inside did not have a safe life, when the fire did not start before, most of the battalion soldiers wanted to surrender, and now the fire is together, and there are more people who want to surrender. But the general Zhao Shiyu was moved by the group of people from Zhaoqing, ordered to prepare for a breakthrough, and led a few officers to lead the battalion soldiers who wanted to surrender, if it weren't for the fear that these battalion soldiers would be in a hurry, I was afraid that Song Liu and other fierce soldiers would have been killed long ago.

Zhao Shiyu's breakthrough plan was to run over the wall, because he knew that the Ming army guarding outside the gate must be prepared and would not let them escape calmly, but running from the courtyard wall had a great chance of escaping. Zhao Shiyu's idea was that the Li Mansion, which covers an area of dozens of acres, was too big, and it was impossible for the Ming army to guard every inch of the courtyard wall, and their attention was focused on the direction of the gate, so as long as the speed was fast enough, they could run out of Xinxing Town from the courtyard wall before the Ming army team found out, as long as they got out of the town and drilled into the forest, the Ming army had no way to take them.

The preparations for the breakthrough have been made, plus the ladders in the Li Mansion, a total of more than ten ladders were secretly put up behind the courtyard wall, and when Zhao Shiyu was about to give the order to break through, white smoke floated over the courtyard wall, and in the blink of an eye, the courtyard was shrouded in smoke.

The weather is hot, people are anxious, and suddenly thick smoke hits, and the taste of being in it can be imagined. This smoke does not distinguish between people, whether it is an officer or a battalion soldier, they are all coughing loudly, and tears are choking out one by one.

Song Liu, who had always wanted to surrender and was unwilling to accompany these officials to death in vain, took the opportunity to shout again: "Brothers, don't hang yourself to death with the officials, if they don't surrender, let's surrender!" ”

"The smoke is too big, I can't stand it, I can't hold it!"

"It's down, it's down, go open the door, quick!"

Some battalion soldiers were so choked by the smoke that they couldn't stand it, so they turned around and rushed to the front to open the door and surrender.

"Second master, the battalion soldiers can't stop it, let's hurry up to the wall!"

Xiong Yingfu saw that the situation was not good, and he ran to the ladder with the second steward, and the second steward was so anxious that he wanted to jump to his feet.

Let him have 10,000 mouths and 10,000 heads to Xianger, but the identity of a steward of the Jingnan Palace, which is enough to make his head move, makes him stop begging for mercy. Besides, he Xiang Er is still a flag man! Although it is the flag of the Han army, it is also a flag man! Hit the Qing Dynasty and entered the customs, I haven't heard that there are flag people who have descended, and I haven't heard that there are flag people who can not die if they fall!

Xiang Eryan, whose eyes were barely open, saw that there were battalion soldiers shouting to open the door, and in a hurry, he grabbed Zhao Shiyu and shouted: "What are you still doing in a daze, don't you want to let your master go!" ”

"Huh?"

Zhao Shiyu was excited, subconsciously responded, and then helped Xiang Er to the side of the ladder, this will also not care about the battalion soldiers who went to open the door and surrender, if you don't hurry up and climb over the wall, it will be too late.

The smoke in the yard is getting bigger and bigger, and if you don't go out quickly, the fire won't kill people, and the smoke will choke people to death. Most of the battalion soldiers ran to the front yard to open the door and surrender, and only a few officers were left along with Zhao Shiyu's personal soldiers, as well as the group from Zhaoqing.

"Ahem"

Xiang Steward ran to the ladder, but he couldn't stand it anymore, and he couldn't stop panting under the corner. The others weren't much better, they were all walking forward with their waists bent, and they couldn't help it, they couldn't breathe in air if they didn't do that.

Xiong Yingfu was also choked, but he still dragged Xiang Er, holding the ladder with one hand, and pulling Xiang Er up the ladder with the other: "Second master, you go up first!" ”

"Good!"

Xiang Er glanced at Xiong Yingfu gratefully, struggled to the side of the ladder, just stepped up with one foot but retracted emptyly, pointed to one of Zhao Shiyu's personal soldiers with his hand, and instructed him: "You go first!" ”

The soldier was stunned for a moment, and glanced at Zhao Shiyu, who nodded and hurriedly covered his mouth and climbed up the ladder, but as soon as he poked his head out, before he could take a look at the situation outside the courtyard wall, he screamed and fell down.

But listening to the sound of "plopping", the body of the pro-soldier fell heavily to the ground, and Xiong Yingfu on the side was startled, squinted, and was shocked, it turned out that the pro-soldier's chest was stabbed with a spear A big hole, which would be blood and water bubbling out.

"My lord, there are Ming troops outside the wall, and the brothers didn't go out!"

Several officers who followed Zhao Shiyu were dumbfounded, not knowing what to do. Zhao Shiyu also panicked, the Ming army outside the courtyard wall was prepared, and there was no way to break through.

What to do? If you don't break through, you have to be choked to death by smoke, roasted to death by fire, break through, stabbed to death by a spear?

When everyone was panicking, they heard Jiang Dahai, who had always refused to surrender, suddenly say: "My lord, it's better to surrender, if you continue like this, the brothers will be choked to death!" ”

"This"

Even the rivers and seas are about to surrender, Zhao Shiyu's heart fell to the bottom, and he was also a little tempted to surrender, after all, he didn't want to be choked to death by smoke.

"You can't fall, and you can't die!"

Seeing that Zhao Shiyu had the idea of surrendering, he shouted to the second steward in a hurry: "Everyone go together, there are not many Ming troops outside!"

As soon as the words fell, I heard someone behind me shouting: "Get on your mother's head!" Then I felt my arm tighten, as if I was being held down by something.

"What are you doing?"

The arrest of the second steward made Xiong Yingfu and the Zhaoqing businessmen shocked.

Zhao Shiyu was also surprised, looked at Jiang Dahai in disbelief, and said in a lost voice: "Dahai, what are you doing here?" ”

Jiang Dahai gritted his teeth and said: "My lord, with this palace steward here, our lives can't be lost!" ”

"You mean?"

Zhao Shiyu stared at Xiang Er's steward for only a few seconds, and suddenly made up his mind, and shouted outside under Xiang Er's angry gaze: "It's down, we're down!" ”