At the head of the city, with Zheng Sen's order, everyone immediately got busy, although everyone's hearts were beating up and down, no one wanted to die, no one wanted today to be their last day in the world, they must keep, this is the will to survive.

"Look, General!" Some soldiers pointed to the Qing army attacking outside the city, they seemed to be nothing, their steps were calm, walking steadily, not fast or slow, just like walking outside the city, the twenty towering ladders lined up, mixed in the siege soldiers, slowly moving forward, there was no sign of hurry.

But what Zheng Sen saw was not the murderous aura of the Qing army, nor the war knives of the cold light Sensen, but the people who were connected by the ropes of the Qing army and advanced with the front neck of the knife holder, judging from the clothes on their bodies, they were all the people of the Ming Dynasty.

Although Zheng Sen was young, he was familiar with military books and various war allusions since he was a child, and he had also heard of the appalling but effective dirty things of blackmailing the people to attack the city.

But when all this really appeared in front of his eyes, he froze, all this came too suddenly, he never thought that all the strategies he had conceived before to resist the enemy would not be remembered at all in an instant, and his mind was blank.

"Shameless!" Zheng Sen gritted his teeth and scolded.

Most of the thousands of Ming troops defending the city were frightened, not knowing what to do, and the hard bow that had been drawn like a crescent moon just now was also loosened, and many people had tears in their eyes.

"General, three hundred steps, order" Zheng Sen's subordinate was anxious and shouted loudly in his ear.

Zheng Sen clenched his fists hard, his face pale. This is nearly a thousand people, as long as you give an order, that's right. The Qing army may have blocked it, but none of the people could survive, he had no power to give this order, and he couldn't give it, and once the order was given, the consequences were not something he could control.

Often the besieging party drove the people to attack the city. The captured people were all collected from the vicinity, and there must have been many of them among the guards who were friends or relatives of the people below. One shot is equivalent to killing them with his own hands, it is too ruthless, and the siege is insufficient. Damn the heart.

"General. It's two hundred and four steps, and if you don't give an order, you won't be in a hurry, general, please, give the order"

The faces of the generals beside Zheng Sen turned red, the vanguard of the Qing army was already very close, and it didn't take much for the ladder of the rear team to cross the bottom firing angle of the artillery.

The artillery was semi-fixed to the head of the city, and it was difficult to adjust the angle of fire. With the current movement speed of the Qing army, it is completely impossible to keep up.

"Brother, brother," shouted a Ming soldier who was defending the city as he ran along the city wall. burst into tears, "Brother, didn't you go to Jiangnan?"

"Third aunt, what about my son, what about my father, third aunt"

……

"Son, I can't help you, your daughter-in-law and daughter were killed by these brutes"

……

"Help me, I'm Han, don't fire, please save me, open the city gates"

……

The people who walked in the front of the Qing army could already clearly see the faces of the defenders on the city wall, and there were many acquaintances and relatives among them, crying in and out of the city.

Zheng Sen sighed, suddenly changed his face, and said to the generals beside him, "Let them not cry, guard the city, dare to leave the defenders without permission, and engage in military law."

After speaking, Zheng Sen walked down the city tower quickly, came to the edge of the city wall, and took off his helmet.

Standing at the battlement, he shouted, "The people of the Ming Dynasty, Yangzhou City is the city of the Ming Dynasty, I Zheng Sen only have the responsibility of defending the city, and I have no right to sacrifice the city, the Manchurians can kill my people and take my city, but they can't kill the Han people in the world to resist the Manchurian heart, I can't save you, if you die because of me, then please hate me, I don't go to hell, whoever goes to hell, Zheng Sen has made amends to you"

At that moment, Zheng Sen jumped up to the battlement, threw his armor and knelt down, and kowtowed three times firmly.

At this time, the rest of the defenders also knew that they could not save them, and the main general did not hesitate to save them, what else was there to say, and at that moment above the city, the whole army knelt down, and it was solemn.

"Folks, both horizontal and vertical are dead, there is no way to live, and the Tatar soldiers are fighting"

"Spelled ......"

Suddenly, nearly 1,000 people in the Qing army became chaotic, broke free from the rope in their hands like crazy, and scuffled with the Qing army around them, even the old and weak, women and children joined in.

However, the unarmed people, where were the opponents of the well-trained Qing army, flesh and blood flew everywhere, and nearly 100 people had died under the sword.

Many Qing troops had already launched an assault, and bows and arrows and muskets of all kinds were scattered towards the city.

Suddenly, on the north gate of Yangzhou, people continued to fall to their deaths, and the breath of death finally came.

"Fire!" Zheng Sen made a quick decision.

Just when the Qing army was less than 200 paces away, the cannon at the head of the city finally sounded.

Rumble!

The earth shook and the sky shook, thirty cannons fired together, the projectile with sparks crossed the head of the Qing army, and smashed intensively on the ladder of the last Qing army to attack the city, sawdust splashed, flesh and blood flew together, the ladder hit by the cannon was torn apart, and the soldiers hiding inside screamed and fell down one after another.

In addition to the power of artillery, it can bombard siege equipment, and more importantly, the sound of cannons that shakes people's hearts, this kind of terrible sound than the howl of ghosts and wolves can greatly destroy people's inner endurance in an instant, and many soldiers will be frightened by it, which is a kind of shocking force.

Shells were fired in rows, reloaded, fired, and in the blink of an eye, the roaring artillery had fired three rows of shells in a row, destroying seven ladders.

But as the Qing army's ladder accelerated forward, at this time, it had already entered the dead end of cannon firing, and it was about to advance to the moat.

The moat of Yangzhou City is two zhang wide (nearly six meters), and a pool of muddy river water temporarily slows down the advance of the Qing army, and after crossing the moat, there is still a distance of nearly two zhang from the city wall.

Above and below the city, arrows flew like locusts, and grenades loaded with gunpowder were also thrown at each other, and the huge crackling sound was incessant.

Zheng Sen held a long knife in his hand, motionless, looking at all this in front of him, calm, from time to time to find out the weak points of the Qing army, waving the knife to let the soldiers attack intensively, at this moment, he could hear only the fierce shouting and killing on the side of the west gate, but he never heard the cannon at the head of the city, he was not only a little worried. Mo is not the same as Simon's situation, with Shi Kefa's principles of life, he may really not dare to kill the killer. What happened to Simon's war? If Simon is broken, what is the use of him staying here?

"Zuo Qianhu, ride a fast horse to the West Gate to have a look, and tell Inspector Shi that there must be no kindness of a woman, otherwise the city will not be able to hold it, and more people will die."

"Yes!"

Aobai, who was watching the battle from afar, also looked extremely uneasy. The method of driving the people to seize the city did not completely work, and thousands of Qing troops were still trapped by the moat, in a hurry.

Ao Bai shouted. "Send another thousand people up, kill all those people, fill the moat with corpses, and can't take Yangzhou. Don't even think about living."

Nearly 3,000 people went out of the city in one siege. This is also a bloody investment, the number of people is too dense, but Ao Bai can't control these, these 3,000 people, most of them are the Eight Banners of the Han Army, in his eyes, they are just cannon fodder.

Ten miles away, on the position of the two armies facing Zhang Wenlian, Wang Lanping could hear bursts of artillery from the direction of Yangzhou. He knew that the Qing army had begun to attack the city.

Song Dali said urgently. "Yangzhou is fighting, Governor, let's do it too"

Wang Lanping nodded, compared to here and Yangzhou, he was actually more worried about that side, and the fear of the unknown always made people uneasy.

Suddenly, several soldiers of the sentry battalion ran down the hill with a man covered in blood.

As soon as the bloody man saw the banner of the word 'king', he hurriedly broke away, knelt down and cried and said, "Commander, the small one is the subordinate of General Zheng, the chief soldier of Huai'an, General Zheng asked me to risk my life to go out of the city to tell you that Inspector Shi did not meet the enemy outside the city, but stuck to the city wall, and now the people are surrounded by the west gate and the north gate, listening to the sound of this cannon, it has already started."

This person was wounded, and he must have gone out of the city, and met the Qing army's patrols scattered outside the city, and he only came out after nine deaths.

After finding out that the identity of the messenger was indeed Zheng Sen's subordinate, Wang Lanping shook his head and sighed, and said to himself, "Nerd, Yangzhou will be in your hands sooner or later."

Song Dali hurriedly said, "Commander, listening to this movement, I am afraid that the Qing army has already attacked the city of Yangzhou, you listen, the sound of artillery has stopped, it has only been half an hour, Yangzhou City has been broken in half an hour?" ”

Wang Lanping was not so pessimistic, with the strength of the city wall, it may not be effective without nearly a hundred cannons for a few days, it has only been long since the war, there is no such possibility, and there are more than 20,000 Yangzhou soldiers in the city, as well as Shi Kefa's newly recruited a few days ago, and Zheng Sen's tens of thousands of Huai'an troops, adding 50,000 or 60,000 people, it is impossible to not be able to hold even a day.

However, although Wang Lanping thinks so, he is always unassured, Yangzhou is the last line of defense that the champion army can rely on, and losing it is equivalent to playing it himself.

"Someone, send an order to Chen Wanliang, the commander of the Anyuan battalion who stayed in the camp, and ask him to divide 3,000 troops to relieve the siege of Yangzhou's West Gate, remember, don't enter the city, as long as you attack the Qing army, you can't fight, these 3,000 people are not allowed to return to the camp before my army arrives."

Wang Lanping can only divide troops from the big battalion at the moment, and there is no more, I just hope that Zheng Sen will hold on a little more.

Zhang Wenchuan also heard the sound of Yangzhou cannons, and there was a fight over there, but the champion army on the opposite side was motionless, without the slightest sign of panic, don't they know the importance of Yangzhou to them, the grain and grass of the champion army are all in the city.

Zhang Wenlian's main purpose here is to attract the champion army and prevent them from going to the rescue of Yangzhou, so as long as Wang Lanping does not move, he will definitely not move, and in this unfavorable terrain, there is no certainty of victory no matter how he moves.

Wang Lanping can't wait, he must break Zhang Wenhuan in the shortest possible time, according to reports, there are nearly 30,000 Qing troops besieging Yangzhou, and there are at least 20,000 people on the opposite side, Kong Youde sent more than 10,000 people to escort the Qing army's grain route a few days ago, so it is estimated that there are nearly 30,000 people in the camp of the Qing army, so it is judged that Kong Youde is not confident in this battle and did not do his best.

And Wang Lan Pingqi is even more strange, such a big formation, Kong Youde did not show up in person, and the sound of the shelling just now was the artillery fire of the Ming army, why didn't he hear the artillery of the Qing army, according to his understanding, the power of the Qing army's red-clothed cannon is far better than that of the Ming army, which has to be attributed to Kong Youde's great help to the Manchurians.

Kong Youde would be stupid enough to hit the city gate with a soldier's head?

Wang Lanping didn't know all this, and he hadn't seen any sentry come back, so he had to make sure that Yangzhou was safe before he could let go of Zhang Wenlian.

More than 40,000 people, just a few miles apart.

Finally, the Sentinel came.

Knowing that the Qing army drove the people to attack the city, Shi Kefa did not decisively attack the enemy, so that the Qing army approached the city wall step by step, and began the tug-of-war of the city wall.

"Song Dali, pass on my general order, prepare for war!" (To be continued.) )