The Qing soldiers in Yucheng had no intention of surrendering for a long time, Liu Zhaoji was a little annoyed, seeing that the mortar battalion in front of the left was all ready, Liu Zhaoji pointed in the direction of the head of the city, and yelled in his mouth, "Fight me!" ”

The mortar battalion was only six or seven hundred meters away from the city wall, and this distance was simply not too aim, and after only one test shot, the battalion commander gave the order for the whole battalion to fire a salvo, and more than 20 shells flew towards the head of Yucheng City.

Only three or four shells fell on the city wall, and the rest of the shells flew into the city, but these three or four shells were enough to sweep away the Qing soldiers on this section of the city wall.

After the mortars were fired, the sappers of the 1st Army then rushed towards the city wall with several iron carts, and the 1st Division, 1st Regiment and 1st Battalion rushed up with the sappers, who wanted to provide fire cover for the sappers to blast out.

Zukefa was lucky not to be hit by the shells, but he was so startled by the violent explosion that he sat on the ground, and waited for his soldiers to help him up from the city, and then saw that the city wall in front of him was full of soldiers who had been killed and wounded, and this section of the city wall was no longer defended.

The sappers had reached the foot of the city wall, and the first battalion had reached a distance of less than fifty meters from the city wall, and the soldiers raised their guns and pointed their guns at the head of the city, ready to open fire as soon as the Qing soldiers showed up.

There were no firearms or bows and arrows on the city wall, and most of the Qing soldiers were frightened by the explosion just now, where did they dare to run on this section of the city wall? By the time Zukefa came to his senses and beckoned the soldiers to hurry up and fill in the gaps in the wall, the sappers had already begun to dig under the wall.

The well-trained sappers of the army moved quickly, and in a short time a small hole was dug out of the wall. It doesn't take much explosives to blow up this section of wall, which is not thick. Ten catties of ZA medicine were stuffed into the hole. After pulling out the fuse, one of the soldiers lit a match, lit the fuse, and immediately ran backwards, and several iron cars were dragged backwards by other sappers.

The first battalion began to run and retreat after the zha medicine was placed, this distance was not very safe, in case a flying stone collapsed and injured someone, it would be too bad.

Zukefa, who was lying on the side of the city stamping and watching, saw the Wehrmacht under the city walls start to run backwards, and he was still a little puzzled. Before he could react, an earth-shattering loud bang sounded beside the city wall, and Zu Kefa saw this section of the wall step down with his own eyes, and the dust that rose quickly obscured his vision.

Before the dust cleared, the cannon sound that had just stopped rang out again, and the gap in the city wall that had been blown up was covered again by artillery fire, and the Qing soldiers who had caught up to plug the gap were blown up and fell to pieces, and those who followed behind turned around and ran to the back.

The battalion, which had just run backwards, rushed towards the gap under the leadership of the battalion commander, and by the time the artillery stopped, a dozen soldiers had already rushed through the gap. Entered the city.

The first battalion quickly controlled the breach, and more soldiers began to storm the city. Lou Ting's second division lined up in small phalanxes and then entered the city, and the next battle became suspenseless.

With the shouts of "surrender or kill" resounding throughout the city, the battle in the city was over in less than an hour.

After seeing that the city wall had been blown down, Zu Kefa ran to the west with his own soldiers, followed by a large number of Qing soldiers. Finally ran out of the West Gate, just when Zu Kefa thought that he could escape after all, the gunshots like bursting beans rang out again, and the soldiers who ran in front fell one after another.

Zu Kefa looked at it, the road in front had been blocked by the Wehrmacht, and when he wanted to escape from both sides, he found that the situation on both sides was exactly the same, and Zu Kefa threw the waist knife in his hand and shouted, "Descend!" ”

With Zu Kefa being captured alive, the battle in Yucheng was over, so fast that even Liu Zhaoji himself didn't expect that in less than an hour, more than 20,000 Qing soldiers were captured, more than 18,000 people were captured, and the first army suffered more than a dozen casualties.

Although Guide is only more than 30 miles away from Yucheng, there are no Qing soldiers to rescue Yucheng, maybe Haoge hopes that more than 20,000 people in Yucheng can use the city to consume a large number of national defense forces, but what Haoge didn't expect is that Yucheng didn't even hold out for half an hour.

After taking Yucheng, the gate of Guide, an important town in Henan, was completely opened to the First Army, and in Liu Zhaoji's eyes, Guide was now like a ripe peach, waiting to be picked by himself.

But Liu Zhaoji was not in a hurry, and after taking Yucheng, the first army rested in Yucheng for another day, and then advanced to Guide without hurrying. It's not that Liu Zhaoji doesn't want to take advantage of the victory to march, but Liu Zhaoji, who has always been steady, feels that the strength of the first army has far surpassed his opponent, and he doesn't want to give Haoge any chance to fight hard when his strength can completely crush Haoge.

Facts have proved that Liu Zhaoji is too steady, and the rest and recuperation of the First Army also gave the Qing army the opportunity to adjust its deployment.

Hauge was stunned by the brave offensive ability of the first army, and in his mind, Yucheng concentrated more than 20,000 people, although the city wall was not as good as Guide, but if the Wehrmacht wanted to take it, it would take three or five days and lose thousands of people. It is not known how many people Hauge lost in this battle, but it is certain that from the arrival of the first army in Yucheng to the total annihilation of the defenders of Yucheng, it will take less than half a day.

The battle of Yucheng gave Hauge a new understanding of the First Army, and then he remembered everything that Duoduo told him when he left, it turned out that Duoduo did not exaggerate the combat effectiveness of the Wehrmacht, in fact, Duoduo's understanding of the strength of the Wehrmacht was not enough.

According to a few soldiers who escaped from Yucheng, the Wehrmacht began to use a new firearm, and they all opened fire on the ground, and they shot after shot. You can hit someone, but they can't hit you!

Moreover, according to these soldiers, the Wehrmacht did not carry swords and guns at all, that is, they did not fight in close combat with you at all, and this news greatly disappointed Hauge, who had high hopes for more than 10,000 Manchu and Mongol warriors in his house.

He wanted to think of another way, no matter what, he had to hold on to Guide, retreat is not a retreat, return to Germany, the retreat is not a retreat, return to Germany, the Wehrmacht will definitely advance to the hinterland of Henan, if Kaifeng and Zhengzhou are lost again, then the grain road from the two lakes to the north will be basically cut off, and then the 560,000 troops in the north are afraid that without the Wehrmacht attack, they will be starving.

The situation was urgent, and Haoge didn't put on any of the prince's shelves, and gathered all the generals directly on the upper floor of Guide City.

"How many artillery pieces and guns are there in the army now?" Hauge asked bluntly.

As soon as he heard Hauge's direct question, the generals below began to chatter, and almost no one could say why, Hauge's face changed a little, and finally Li Guohan stood up and hugged his fists and said:

"Lord Yu, there are now sixty-seven artillery pieces in Guide City, thirty-two red-coated cannons, and thirty-four other artillery pieces including the general's cannons, and there are a total of 3,200 guns in the infantry army under the command of the lowly commander, all of which were left after the transfer of King Pingnan."

After listening to Li Guohan's words, Haoge's face was a little pale, and his eyes began to stare at the other Han generals, he knew that there could be no firecrackers among the cavalry.

Just when Li Guohan was reporting, Liu Jinzhong, Huang Ying and several other Han army generals began to count with their fingers, and when they saw Haoge's eyes staring at him again, they stepped forward one by one to report that there was no artillery in their army, only a few hundred to dozens of old-fashioned firearms.

After listening to the general's report, Hauge frowned and thought, only these firearms, how can they deal with an army full of more than 40,000 people? Hauge looked at Li Guohan again, obviously wanting to hear his idea.

"Lord Wang, I think we can't fight them in the field, even if there are these fortifications left by Prince Yu, their artillery is too powerful. They also learned in detail about their attack on Yucheng, where they used artillery to clear the defenders on the city wall first, and then sent people to blow down the city wall with zha medicine. He thought that they could not be allowed to get close to the city walls, and that the current defenses on the walls were not enough. Li Guohan said as he pointed to the empty city wall.

"Sandbags and other things must be prepared on the city wall, sandbags can be used to build some fortifications on the city wall, the soldiers can prevent their artillery from killing and wounding in the fortifications, and then use artillery and guns to prevent them from approaching the city wall. It seems that Li Guohan has done a lot of homework and knows a lot about the combat process of the Wehrmacht in the past.

Hearing what Li Guohan said, Hauge felt that his eyes lit up, it seems that Dolgon admires Li Guohan very much, and Li Guohan does have something extraordinary.

Hearing that there is no need to fight with the National Defense Army in the field, all the generals of the Han Army showed a happy look on their faces, they have all heard that Zu Kefa outside Yucheng took more than 5,000 people, and was killed in less than a pillar of incense, and these teams of their own are not much stronger than Zu Kefa, and no one wants to follow in Zu Kefa's footsteps.

"Lord Wang, what should we do? It's not okay for us to defend the city. Seeing that Haoge had basically agreed with Li Guohan's suggestion, the cavalry commander Nikan hurriedly stepped out and said.

"This..."Hauge was a little confused, if all the forty or fifty thousand cavalry gathered in the city of Guide, not only would it be crowded, but the consumption of grain and grass in the city would increase greatly, and if the Wehrmacht only besieged and not attacked, then Guide would not be able to hold on for long.

Hauge looked at Li Guohan again, he believed that Li Guohan would have a way, this Han man seemed to be really good at the study of war, when the Qing Dynasty swept the world in the past, he didn't need any strategy, but now the Wehrmacht is too powerful, so he has to rely on these Han ideas to deal with them.

"Lord Wang, I think that our cavalry can be divided into two parts, one part is stationed in Zhouji, and one part is stationed in Shuangba, and the cavalry does not take the initiative to attack the Wehrmacht, but constantly harasses them, so that they can't attack the city with peace of mind, if the Wehrmacht is fully committed to dealing with the cavalry, the cavalry can take the initiative to withdraw. In this way, it is much better to keep them in check outside the city of Guide than to stay in the city. This time, Li Guohan thought seriously for a long time, and then said to Haoge.

"Good! That's it, the cavalry is divided into two routes, one is led by Nikan and stationed in Zhouji, and the other is led by Luo Luohun and stationed in Shuangba, don't delay, go quickly! All the infantry troops withdrew into the city, all firearms were concentrated and handed over to Commander Li for deployment, and the matter of defending the city was also under the responsibility of Commander Li. Hauge made up his mind without hesitation this time. (To be continued.) )