In the dark night, a series of explosions came from the city wall of the West Gate, which surprised the new officers and soldiers of Anhui nearby. The thieves got to the top of the city so quickly? Whether it was the battalion officer, the pipe band, or the shed chief, there was a kind of chagrin in their hearts, and at this moment they all remembered the angry expression of Lord Yu Dahong, the commander of the Anhui New Army. Although Lord Yu is not strict with everyone, Lord Yu is by no means a tolerant person. If the news of the thieves' attack on the city was known to Lord Yu, ...... almost all the officers were frightened by their assumptions.

The battalion officer in charge of the defense of the west of the city was under the city at this time, and he couldn't take care of it so much in an emergency. Under the reflection of the torches, the battalion officer casually grabbed a junior officer beside him, and ordered in an anxious voice: "You hurry up and let the two teams of brothers who went to the west of the city rush back." The junior officer immediately took the order.

Next, the battalion officer shouted to the soldiers beside him: "Quick, you guys, rush forward." "The original intention of the battalion officer was to let these soldiers rush over as soon as possible to eliminate the thieves at the head of the city. However, the desperate command had the opposite effect, and a dozen soldiers obeyed the order and rushed to the staircase leading to the city wall with torches. These soldiers didn't really want to face the thieves on the city wall, and they slowed down almost in unison at the entrance of the city staircase. These military operations in Pinsuri were commanded by junior officers, and the military officials who commanded the soldiers were sent by the battalion officers to give orders. Who's on first and who's on last? The soldiers listened to the loud sound of the first grenade explosion on the wall, and none of them would go up first. A group of soldiers stood here so stupidly.

A momentary pause on the battlefield can lead to great consequences, and the soldiers of the Anhui New Army only stopped for more than 20 seconds, and another group of New Army soldiers rushed to the city ladder under the leadership of the officer. Some of the soldiers who stopped at the entrance of the city ladder began to give way, while others were still stupid, and the three or four men were huddled into a heap of immobilized on the way to the city wall where the battle was being fought at such a critical moment.

Xiong Mingyang climbed the long ladder with both hands and feet, and the long ladder made for the city wall of Anqing was relatively slender, and it shook very much as soon as he got on it. Climbing can only be carried out by one person warrior at the same time. Xiong Mingyang squeezed out the soldiers in front of him to get the chance to climb. At this time, there were already four commandos on the city, and each commando carried eight grenades. All you could hear was explosions on the city walls. The sound of rifle fire mixed with the sound of explosions was all coming from other places towards the breach at the head of the city.

At this time, Xiong Mingyang only felt that his heart was empty, and all kinds of distracting thoughts were thrown out of the clouds. If you can't climb the walls as fast as you can, it's useless to think about anything. According to the experience accumulated during training, Xiong Mingyang neither pursued faster, nor did he look for anything more stable, and climbed up the trembling ladder without pause. Whether it was the sound of gunfire and explosions at the head of the city or the panicked shouts of the new troops in the city, Xiong Mingyang could hear it clearly, but his heart was as calm as a pool of water, and there was even a detached silence.

The soldiers of the assault team saw their captain climb the long ladder like flying, and reached the top in a blink of an eye with a free movement, and then Captain Xiong Mingyang held down the battlement at the head of the city and jumped lightly onto the head of the city. It took only half the time of an ordinary soldier to climb the long ladder. The soldiers glanced at each other, and immediately someone climbed the ladder, imitating the appearance of Captain Xiong Mingyang, desperately climbing upward.

There were no lights on the city wall at the breach, and now there was a thick smoke of gunpowder. The unique pungent smell after the grenade exploded made Xiong Mingyang almost cough. The four warriors who had already reached the city wall were leaning against the wall with grenades in their hands, and from the time they waited for the city, they returned fire with grenades whenever the enemy fired at them. There were no more enemies around, at least no enemy had the courage to shoot at these fighters. However, the city was already brightly lit, Xiong Mingyang lay on the inside of the city wall and looked down, and a bunch of new troops were crowded at the entrance of the city ladder not far away. "Follow me!" He shouted, and rushed over there first.

Once people huddle together in an orderly manner, it will be like a mess, and the more anxious they are, the more they will not be able to easily straighten it out. Some of the Qing troops at the entrance of the city ladder were in a hurry to go to the city, some wanted to sneak away, and some simply stood there and waited, hoping to be able to go over without advancing or retreating. The chaos at the entrance of the city staircase took three minutes without order. In the fourth minute, several objects fell from the sky and smashed heavily on the shoulders or heads of the Qing army.

"Who the is throwing things." Some of the Qing troops who were smashed reacted quickly, and they couldn't help but raise their heads and curse to the city. Three seconds later, a series of explosions blew up more than 30 Qing soldiers at the entrance of the city ladder.

Since the reinforcements sent by Pu Guanshui did not need to consider the problem of concealment, they crossed the moat in less than ten minutes, and after the long ladder was erected, the speed of climbing the city was far beyond Pu Guanshui's imagination. When Pu Guanshui was thinking about what to do next, Xiong Chengji had already run over and said eagerly: "Pu Xietong, let our brothers from the Yue Wang Association go to the city to persuade them to surrender." ”

After the People's Party took the horse camp, the members of the Yue Wang Society came out one after another to express themselves as comrades of the revolutionary party. Before the battle set off, Chai Qingguo and Pu Guanshui got a list of important cadres of the Yue Wang Society in the new army. Pu Guanshui was very familiar with the New Army, and since these revolutionary comrades were willing to come out to serve the revolution, Pu Guanshui turned a blind eye to the practice of these people secretly referring to some low-level soldiers as members of the Yue Wang Society. Chai Qingguo was very skeptical about Yue Wanghui's combat effectiveness, and he asked Yue Wanghui and their men to form an army of their own and watch the battle from the side. Pu Guanshui has no objection to this.

After all, Xiong Chengji graduated from a full-fledged military academy, and he admired Pu Guanshui very much on weekdays, so he volunteered to follow Pu Guanshui. The fierce firefight in front of him made Xiong Chengji, a famous revolutionary in the history of the Anhui revolution, both excited and afraid. He was not afraid of war, the swiftness of the People's Party's attack was far beyond Xiong Chengji's imagination, and Xiong Chengji was worried that those comrades in the New Army would be drawn into the war and die in vain.

Pu Guanshui didn't think about Xiong Chengji's application, he pointed to the two long ladders on the other side of the moat and said, "Then you can take someone across the moat now and go to the city from here."

"......, yes." Xiong Chengji's answer was not very smooth. Pu Guanshui has always been Xiong Chengji's boss, and when he heard Pu Guanshui say this, Xiong Chengji immediately felt that Pu Guanshui wanted to let the comrades of Yue Wanghui go to the city to help fight the war.

Pu Guanshui looked at Xiong Chengji standing still, and he asked strangely, "What else is going on?" ”

Xiong Chengji immediately replied: "Please send us weapons and ammunition." Let's go into battle. ”

"Why do you want weapons and ammunition when you go to the city and shout?" Puguan asked subconsciously. After saying this, he already understood what Xiong Chengji meant, Pu Guanshui pointed to the city, "If you want weapons and ammunition, then go and seize them yourself." In my words, you can't fight a tough battle now, so follow our troops and capture it. Don't fight our troops. ”

When Pu Guanshui said this, he took it for granted. But this is really hurtful in Xiong Chengji's ears. Obviously, Pu Guanshui didn't have the Yue Wang Club as his own person at all, and he was even more contemptuous of the Yue Wang Society's combat effectiveness. Holding back his indignation, Xiong Chengji took the order.

In the original plan, the battle on the west side of the city was a feint attack on the three gates. Try to attract the enemy's forces. After the blasting and breakthrough in the east of the city, the enemy in the west of the city had to move his forces to the east of the city. It was only at this time that the troops west of the city began to storm. Now the situation has become that Chai Qingguo's horse team has mobilized the enemy's forces to the north of the city, and the sneak attack team has captured a small section of the city wall. Listening to the voice, Xiong Mingyang had already commanded the troops to spread out to both sides, and at the same time began to suppress the vitality of the enemy in the city.

"It seems that Chai Qingguo's plan actually wants me to carry it out." Until now, Pu Guanshui has no other ideas. The current situation has reached a point where there is absolutely no going back. There is no alternative to imposing constant pressure on the enemy.

Under the city walls, which are more than two kilometers long to the west of the city, three troops are allocated, and there is no way to time the communication. As soon as the assault team started the battle, the other three troops began to attack according to the original plan. In the west of the city, there was already a lot of gunfire, but in fact, there were not many actual sounds of rifle shooting, and many of the sounds were made by putting firecrackers into the tin buckets. The crackling sound sounded hilarious and scary.

In order to give the enemy the illusion that the main force of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army was in the west of the city, the troops in the west of the city were equipped with some mortars. Wrought iron casting, large muzzle, short barrel. It's not so much a cannon as a large grenadier. A custom-packed spray made of cloth. Instead of shells, special packets of explosives with long fuses were used in the blasting section. Fill it in with a fixed propellant, and then put in a special explosive pack that looks a bit like a mortar shell. Breech ignition. With a dull sound, a puff of smoke mixed with sparks erupted from the muzzle of the cannon, and the explosive packets were sprayed onto the top of the wall. Moments later, a dull explosion could be heard near the point of impact.

This kind of explosive packaging is much more powerful than a grenade, and it is much more powerful. In the light of the explosion, Pu Guanshui could even see from a distance that there were soldiers of the New Army at the head of the city who were lifted into the air by the air waves, and they drew an arc and fell directly into the moat outside the city. More than a dozen of these explosives were fired at the head of the city, and the firepower that had been fired at the head of the city was immediately dumb. Immediately there was a burst of cheers from the attacking team under the city.

Almost at the same time, the three forces that attacked the three gates of the West City sent out assault teams. The team members wore only single clothes, carried rifles and grenades wrapped in tarpaulin, and carried a long ladder into the water. This was not that the troops deliberately disobeyed the military order, and the People's Revolutionary Army did not learn much tactics, and seeing that the enemy at the head of the city had lost resistance, the unit commanders and soldiers began the battle almost instinctively according to the fighting habits of these days.

A cannonball just now exploded on the top of the city, and because of the distance between the moat and the distance, the soldiers under the city did not feel the shock wave. But the commandos who had already stormed the city were affected by the shock wave, and everyone felt their ears ringing and their chests tight. Some have even vomited out. Xiong Mingyang's chest was also uncomfortable, he couldn't hold back the feeling of wanting to vomit, and shouted to the support troops who had already gone to the city: "Third platoon commander, you hold here." Commando, follow me down to town. ”

Since they did not expect to be able to rush to the top of the city so smoothly, the troops had no plan to support each other at all, let alone a predetermined signal contact method, and now they could be accidentally injured by friendly artillery if they expand to both sides. Xiong Mingyang didn't think it was a good idea to hold on to this section of the city now. When he was studying at the military academy, Chen Ke once said, "In the face of an already chaotic enemy, we must resolutely carry out in-depth strikes." Even a small army can make a big difference at this point. If it is only to hold on to the positions that have already been captured, it only gives the enemy time to adjust his forces. By the time the next offensive begins, the troops will suffer great losses. ”

The enemy under the city was completely disorganized, first Xiong Mingyang went to the top of the city, and then the three city gates were attacked at the same time, including artillery. Looking down from the battlements, the new troops under the city are either staying where they are and not knowing what to do, or they have begun to scurry around. "The thieves have cannons!" "The thieves are in the city!" Hysterical shouts rang out.

"Three platoon commanders, give us half of your grenades." Xiong Mingyang shouted again.

The third platoon was stunned, the grenade is a sharp weapon in close combat field combat, and if Xiong Mingyang was given, the third platoon leader couldn't believe that he could hold such a long wall.

Seeing that the third platoon commander was hesitant, Xiong Mingyang scolded at the beginning: "You're afraid of a fart!" As long as you don't rush down, the remaining half of the grenades will be fine to hold this staircase. Can the enemies on the walls still hold on? Our troops will be able to rush up in no time. As he spoke, Xiong Mingyang had already begun to pull the grenade down from the waist of the third row long.

The third platoon commander had no choice but to order the troops to hand over half of the grenades to the commando.

"Comrades, follow me. The target is the house ahead! Xiong Mingyang stood at the battlement by the city ladder, and pointed straight to a courtyard in the distance with his arm. He didn't know where it was, but Xiong Mingyang noticed that most of the enemy's troops were coming here from that direction. At this time, relying on rational analysis has completely ineffected, and the soldiers' instinctive intuition on the battlefield made Xiong Mingyang give the battle order.

"Yes!" The fighters of the commando responded.

Then, everyone followed behind Xiong Mingyang and rushed down the city ladder. The thick smell of blood became heavier and heavier, and the entrance of the city ladder was full of corpses of Qing soldiers, all of whom were killed by a grenade led by the commando team led by Xiong Mingyang. Stepping on the slippery blood, the commando team entered Anqing City.

Xiong Mingyang and the commandos didn't know that their target was the location of the battalion officer guarding the west of the city. There were ten times as many soldiers of the New Army there. Of course, even if they knew, Xiong Mingyang would not change his orders. That's what really counts. Towards the chaotic enemy, the assault team stormed up.

Seeing a group of men in different uniforms rushing up from the city, the Forces nouvelles soldiers panicked for a while, and then, under the hysterical scolding of the officers, the Forces nouvelles organized a round of fire at the commandos. Four or five fighters were shot, and three of them were instantly knocked to the ground.

"Three bombs!" Xiong Mingyang ordered. As he shouted, he pulled out a grenade, pulled the fuse, and threw it into the figure opposite.

The soldiers of the Forces nouvelles did not expect that not only did their round of shooting not make the other side back down in the slightest, but on the contrary, the group of people on the opposite side stood almost arrogantly in front of the muzzle of their rifles and threw a lot of black things at them. The soldiers of the New Army immediately subconsciously carried out a second round of shooting. Before they could observe the results of the battle, a violent explosion exploded in front of and behind the ranks of the new army. The queue that had been formed with great difficulty collapsed in an instant. Under the attack of three rounds of grenades, the core of the Forces nouvelles completely collapsed. The remaining soldiers dragged their guns, or simply threw them away, screaming and wailing.

Almost at the same time, the simultaneous attacks of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army at the three gates west of the city had been successful, and the vanguard had already stormed the city walls. Follow-up troops are also rapidly following up.

The messengers of the three armies rushed to Pu Guanshui almost at the same time, "Commander Pu, do you want to open the city gate after capturing it?" ”

Pu Guanshui was also out of the way at this time, his eyes were round, and he was thrown out of the clouds with the elegant demeanor he maintained intentionally or unintentionally, and he shouted loudly at the three correspondents: "What are you doing when you open the city gate?" We don't have any follow-up troops. Go back and tell your commanders that no one is allowed to open the city after they have taken the gates. Give me the gates and walls of the city. Before Chairman Chen's troops contact us, no one is allowed to lose their positions! ”

The correspondent immediately ran back to report.

At this time, there were only three platoons of less than 40 people left around Pu Guanshui, which was originally a company of troops, and the company commander anxiously came up and asked, "Commander Pu, do we want to go up now?" ”

Although Pu Guan was excited, his mind was still very clear, and after the troops of the three city gates had attacked, the troops around him were already the last mobile force under the city. Before Chai Qingguo returned, he had to guard the starting position. "No one is allowed to move, just wait here for the cavalry unit of Brigade Commander Chai to come back."

The company commander looked anxiously at the opposite city wall, and at this time, the sound of gunfire and grenade explosions resounded in the city and in the city. An indescribable impulse made the company commander want to grow wings on his back and immediately fly in to join the battle. But since Pu Guanshui gave the order, the company commander did not dare to disobey the military order. He gritted his teeth and ran back to the middle of the troops, "Everyone assemble in a team, those bunkers are not needed." "Although the company commander knows that his troops will not be able to move for a while, at least they should assemble to attack. At least to be able to make the best preparations before the sortie.

When Xiong Chengji went back to rectify the revolutionary parties of the Yue Wang Society, and told them that everyone was going to the city to persuade them to surrender, some people immediately objected: "If we don't give guns, why should we rush up?" "That's right! Is this clearly for us to die? ”

Opponents made up the majority of the Yue Wang Society. Xiong Chengji did not have a high status in the Yue Wang Association at this time, although he wanted to convince everyone, but few people listened to him. In order to fight against Xiong Chengji, someone has already found Chang Hengfang, who is more qualified. "Fan Guandao, you reason."

Chang Hengfang didn't speak, he looked directly at the city wall, and muttered in his mouth: "Crazy, this group of people in the People's Party are crazy." ”

Sieges in the dark are generally not fired, and the light of the fire will only leak through their position and become the target of the enemy. The people who were arguing followed Chang Hengfang's gaze, only to see that at some point, the soldiers of the People's Party had already lit torches, and under the light of the fire, dozens of long ladders had leaned on the city wall near the three city gates in the west of Anqing City, and the soldiers of the People's Party troops were struggling to climb.

The people of the Yue Wang Association looked at the warriors who bravely climbed the city, and none of them spoke. I don't know if it's the cold weather or something else, Chang Hengfang suddenly shivered, and then asked in an extremely skeptical tone: "Are they going to attack the city?" ”

No one answered this question, and the revolutionary comrades of the Yue Wang Society were shocked by what they saw. The tall city of Anqing was not able to hold out for long at all, and the troops of the People's Party west of the city went up to the city wall with just one blow. These people would never believe this to be true if they hadn't seen it with their own eyes. I wouldn't believe that there was such a fierce warrior in this world.

"What's the point of being blind now?" Xiong Chengji's angry voice broke the silence, "Do you want to go to the city or not?" The troops of the People's Party are heroes, are we just bears, don't we even dare to go to the city? ”