The thieves made their first tentative attack on the city, but due to intensive close-range bird fire, more than half of them were killed and wounded in an instant, and the general who led the team was also killed. Liu Zongmin, who was watching the battle from behind, saw that the situation was not good, and immediately said to Li Zicheng: "Break general, it's not a way to go on like this, let's withdraw first!" ”

Although Li Zicheng was so angry by Zhu Youzhen that he was about to explode, he could still understand the battle situation. If we continue to fight like this, even if we fill in all the thousands of men in the forward battalion, we will not be able to break through the city. Therefore, he had to order hatefully: "Withdraw!" ”

The heralds in the back were busy Mingjin to collect his troops. When the remnants of the thieves heard the sound of the gong, they hurried to retreat to their camp. But it was too late!

Suddenly, the city gate was opened, the drawbridge was lowered, and a group of heavily armored cavalry, who had been waiting impatiently in the inner urn city, shouted and killed, and took the more than 100 archers who were shooting at the Qin soldiers under the city. And in the short moments of waiting for the drawbridge to land, the birdmen at the head of the city also suddenly increased their firepower, so that the archers did not have time to shoot at the cavalry. The moment the drawbridge landed, the Birdsmiths stopped firing, and the rest was left to the cavalry.

And those thieves who were sticking to the edge of the city wall, seeing that the enemy cavalry did not pursue them, were a little secretly happy. They didn't dare or had time to walk the drawbridge, still swimming across the inner moat. As for the bird shooting behind them, they can't control it so much, and whoever hits them will be unlucky.

But as soon as they jumped into the moat, the Qin soldiers behind them stopped shooting, dozens of ropes hung down from the city, and dozens of soldiers with spears followed the ropes directly outside the city wall! They took a few steps forward, and then turned their hands on the thieves in the river. Pity these thieves in the water, they have no ability to resist at all, and most of them were stabbed to death in an instant, and the blood stained the entire river red!

At the same time, the cavalry slaughter of archers was nearing its end. Those thieves were about to retreat, and they had no intention of fighting; In the face of the heavily armored cavalry rushing forward, the bow and arrow did not work at all. The Qin soldiers only charged once, and they smashed the formation of the thieves. The remnants of the thieves had completely lost their fighting spirit, and turned around and ran back, but after all, two legs could not outrun four legs, and they were killed in a short time.

At this time, the cavalry came back and completely annihilated the thieves who were lucky enough to swim across the inner moat. From breaking into the camp to the annihilation of the first wave of thieves, it took less than three minutes!

And after killing all these thieves, Qin Bing also deliberately cleaned up the battlefield unhurriedly and made up for those thieves who had not yet lost their breath. After all was over, he slowly returned to the city singing a triumphant song.

Li Zicheng and the others on the opposite side saw it in their eyes, and they were so angry that they were smoking, and they were so shocked that they were covered in cold sweat. Since the rebellion, they have traveled from south to north, and they have never seen officers and soldiers with such strong combat effectiveness and such ruthlessness!

Zhu Youzhen and several generals at the head of the city were smiling, not only for thwarting the enemy, but also proud of the success of the new tactics!

It turned out that after Zhu Youzhen experienced the two sieges of Zunhua and Ningyuan, he was always not very satisfied with the traditional method of defending the city. Especially when the enemy attack was frustrated and began to retreat, the soldiers defending the city could basically only watch, at most they fired arrows or birds. After all, bows and arrows and bird guns have a limited range and rate of fire, and it is difficult to inflict too much damage on the enemy.

Therefore, Zhu Youzhen proposed to Qi Meifeng and other generals that he should devise a new tactic and carry out a short surprise attack when the enemy army was defeated and retreated.

The generals didn't understand a little, thinking that since they were defending the city, they could just defend the city. If you take the initiative, you will increase the casualties.

Zhu Youzhen had no choice but to bring out the glorious theory of the old man and patiently explain to them: "Whether it is defending the city or other types of warfare, the key is to destroy the enemy's living forces. If you have killed all the enemy troops, will he still be able to attack the city? As for the casualties, think about it, if you allow the enemy to run back, won't the next time you attack the city, won't the defenders suffer the same casualties? If they are killed while they are defeated, the enemy has no intention of fighting, and their combat effectiveness will be greatly reduced, and the casualties will be much smaller. ”

The generals suddenly accepted Zhu Youzhen's theory. Zhu Youzhen was too lazy to be modest, but just asked the generals to come up with a specific plan. Because although the city wall is a great protection for the defenders, it is also a big obstacle when switching from defense to attack. How to quickly cross the city walls and deliver a short but powerful blow to the enemy? This problem cannot be solved by Zhu Youzhen, and everyone needs to brainstorm.

Untie the knots in the mind, and the wisdom of the generals will be brought into full play. After repeated discussions and practical exercises, a new set of tactics for defending the city gradually took shape, that is, first concentrated firepower to suppress the opponent's long-range troops, and the cavalry took the opportunity to kill through the city gates.

At the same time, the pikemen went down directly from the head of the city and killed the enemy near the moat. This idea was also thought up by Zhu Youzhen by borrowing from the "Flying Tigers" in his previous life, and it really greatly increased the speed of troop dispatch.

Today's battle was the first time that the new tactics were applied to actual combat, and it was a great success, and all the more than 500 thieves who attacked in the future were annihilated. However, the casualties on the Qin soldiers' side were very small, only the bird-fired soldiers at the head of the city were wounded by bows and arrows, and the heavy cavalry and pikemen who went out of the city to kill the enemy were not even injured.

On the other side, Li Zicheng and Liu Zongmin and others regretted their intestines. After suffering such a big loss, of course they will not give up, but if they don't change their tactics and still charge like this, it is tantamount to death. After a short discussion, the camp stopped the attack, but did not withdraw, and confronted the Qin soldiers.

At this time, the distance between the two sides was about 200 paces, and if they attacked again, it would be tantamount to fighting hard with the enemy. Therefore, the Qin soldiers just stuck to the city and waited for the changes.

"Alas! It's a pity that there are no Franco cannons and cardinal cannons! Zhu Youzhen couldn't help but sigh, this distance was originally the best range of artillery! It's a pity that he doesn't have a single working cannon now, and two Fran cannons were captured from the bandits' den a few days ago, but they have long been rusted and cannot be used at all. Moreover, this thing belongs to a firearm strictly controlled by the imperial court, and there is nowhere to buy it if there is money.

And if you want to forge your own cannon, it is much more difficult than making a bird gun. In the case of the Franc cannon, it was introduced to China since the middle of the Ming Dynasty, and the imperial court also copied a large number of them, but compared with the original imported goods from the West, both the range and reliability are much worse.

Even so, the imperial court still regarded the cannon casting technology as a secret, and the craftsmen who could cast the cannon were all in Beijing, and they were closely watched by the officials of the Ministry of War. Even if a skilled craftsman such as Sun Yuanlong asked him to cast a cannon without any foundation, it was really difficult.

Therefore, Zhu Youzhen could only watch the thieves. Within half a day, the large army that broke into the camp finally arrived!