With the support of flintlock pikemen and crossbowmen, the Later Zhou army, at the cost of casualties, finally succeeded in using the cover of the chariots to fill in a section of the moat near the gap in the city wall and lay strong planks on it. Then, a large number of sword, shield and spearmen swarmed up the part of the filled moat, rushing towards the crumbling wall. And the defenders of the city were not to be outdone, and immediately sent arrows like rain, and the ash bottle cannon arrows and rolling wood thunder stones were even more smashed without money, intending to stop the attack of the Later Zhou army.

The fierce offensive and defensive battle went on for more than an hour, and the gap in the southern wall of Gu'an City can already be described as a river of corpses and rivers of blood - although the place covered with corpses is a collapsed city wall rather than a vast field, the blood of the casualties of soldiers on both sides has indeed stained the soil slope at the gap in the city wall a dark red. If it is said that before the start of the war, the defenders of Gu'an City, especially many soldiers in the Han garrison, still had some thoughts of surrendering to the Hou Zhou army at the right time, then after this morning's bloody battle, whether it was the hundreds of Khitan soldiers brought by Cao Jiyun, or the original defenders of Gu'an City, or even those young men in the city who were recruited to fill the gap in the city wall, they had all been inspired by this tragic offensive and defensive battle. Especially those defenders who had brothers and sisters or close friends who were killed by the Later Zhou army, they were even more red-eyed at this time, and they only thought about avenging their brothers or robes.

This psychological change of the defenders of Gu'an City was reflected on the battlefield, which made the pressure on the Hou Zhou army besieging the city more and more great, and the attack became more and more difficult. Although the siege of the city with the cooperation of the flintlock pikemen and crossbowmen who were responsible for suppressing the city under the city, the siege of swords, shields and spearmen attacked the city wall several times, but they were unable to hold their ground, and were soon driven down by the counterattack of the defenders. Moreover, as the battle continued, and after paying a certain price for casualties, the defenders of the city gradually found a way to deal with the overwhelmingly superior flintlock musketeers, whose range exceeded the defenders' bows, and the flintlock pissiers could fire calmly without fear of becoming a target for the opposing crossbowmen, which was incomparable to their own crossbowmen.

In order to counteract this advantage of the opponent's flintlock pikemen, after suffering a certain amount of hardship, the defenders at the head of Gu'an City no longer leaned out of the battlements of the city wall as they did at the beginning, shooting arrows or throwing stones at the attacking Zhou troops under the city, but clinging to the city wall, hiding themselves under the battlements, throwing bows, blind throwing thunder stones or ash bottles. Although the accuracy of this attack is much smaller than that of poking the body outside the battlement, because the Later Zhou army of the attack is relatively dense and numerous, the casualties are still very large under the resistance of the defenders - although the Later Zhou army also organized some men and horses to carry out feints in other parts of the city wall, Zhang Xuanying's overly optimistic estimate of this battle made him put the main liliang at the gap in the city wall that he thought was the easiest to break through, so the several points responsible for the feint attack were of limited effect, It did not really serve the purpose of containing the strength of the defenders.

Seeing that it was already noon, and his own siege operation was not going well, and almost no substantial progress was made, Zhang Xuanying, who had been watching the battle from the temporary watchtower of the Chinese army, couldn't help but feel anxious, at this time he had already led a group of subordinates and personal guards to advance to the ballista position where Xu Shao'an was, and regardless of the consequences of accidentally injuring his own siege soldiers - although the shooting accuracy of the ballista is higher than that of artillery, it is only a dozen steps or more than a dozen steps away from us and the enemy, and even close at hand. Shooting in close hand-to-hand combat, accidentally injuring one's own people can be said to be certain - Xu Shaoan was asked to immediately order the ballista artillery to shoot at the collapse of the city wall, suppress the defenders, and cover the siege troops to enter the city.

Regarding Zhang Zangying's order, Xu Shao'an disagreed with 10,000 in his heart. Although this era has not yet formed the complete concept of the nation-state in the past and modern times, and the common people are more to serve in the army for a full meal, for the sake of accumulating merit and promotion, and for the possibility of getting ahead in the future, it is also unfair to say that they do not have the slightest idea of serving the Son of Heaven and the imperial court in their hearts. For the sake of Da Zhou, they can throw their heads and spill their blood, they can have no hesitation, but they can't die under the fire of their own people, and they can't be without resentment. Although the resentment of the dead will not have any effect on the living for a while—and even less for an atheist like Xu Shao'an, the resentment, dissatisfaction, and even anger in the hearts of those soldiers who are alive and see their robes killed by their own ballistas are probably no less than those who have died. If the use of ballistas for support, Gu'an City can be taken quickly, and Zhang Zangying will reward his soldiers well, which may also play a certain role in alleviating this resentment. However, if the city of Gu'an cannot be captured in a short period of time after using ballistas, it will definitely have a very negative impact on the morale and morale of the besieging soldiers and even the entire vanguard troops. Although there may not be a mutiny or desertion of soldiers, the result of an attack on a stubbornly defended city by a morale-poor force can be imagined. However, he was unwilling to return to his heart, and since the Northern Expedition, he has tried his best to avoid friction and conflict with his boss, and in line with the concept that reasonable orders should be carried out, and unreasonable orders should be carried out with a reason, Xu Shaoan still accepted this obviously unreasonable order after expressing "appropriate" opposition and uneasiness to Zhang Zangying's order. ,

Of course, Xu Shao'an's agreement to carry out Zhang Zangying's unreasonable orders does not mean that he is a cold-blooded general who does not take the lives of his soldiers seriously at all in order to take the face of his superiors and achieve his own merits. On the contrary, under the influence of the ideas of equality between officers and soldiers and democracy in the army, Xu Shaoan has always had a reputation for "loving soldiers like sons" and "treating his subordinates well" since he entered the Later Zhou army. He not only has a very high reputation among the "Divine Machine Army", but also has a very good reputation among the soldiers of other troops. And the reason why he carried out Zhang Zangying's order was that the other party was his boss after all, and openly disobeying his boss's order was unacceptable and very taboo no matter what era or in that army, even if the boss's order was wrong. Second, at the same time that Xiao Siwen led the army to leave Youzhou City and go south to fight a decisive battle with the Later Zhou army, the committee also sent a telegram to Xu Shao'an, expressing the hope that Xu Shao'an would delay the capture of Gu'an City by the Later Zhou army as much as possible without arousing Zhang Zangying's suspicion, so as to indirectly enhance Xiao Siwen's confidence in the decisive battle with the Later Zhou army, and prevent him from changing his mind because of the rapid loss of Gu'an City and withdrawing to Youzhou City to defend it. In that case, it will not only affect the committee's strategy of destroying the enemy in the field, but also may make the battle of the "Flying Dragon Army" and "Security Army" attacking Youzhou City too fierce and cause too much damage to the city, which will not be conducive to the development of the team in the core of the Sixteen Youyun Prefectures after the war.

It is based on the above two reasons that Xu Shaoan finally carried out Zhang Yingying's unreasonable instructions without reservation. With his command, the ballista fire, which had been completely stopped, began again. As siege powder cartridges and gunpowder packs fell from the sky, the head of Gu'an was once again shrouded in gunpowder smoke and firelight, and the terrible screams of wounded soldiers on both sides and some of the Zhou soldiers were heard. But the screams and curses were drowned out by the loud noise of more gunpowder cartridges and powder packets exploding, and were no longer heard.

Even Cao Jiyun, who commanded the battle on the horse road behind the city wall, which thought he was relatively safe, was injured in his left arm by the gunpowder bag that crossed the city wall, and the blood flowed for a while, so that he had to hide back in the cave of the hidden soldiers, while bandaging the wounds, he ordered the defenders of the city to leave only a small number of soldiers to watch, and the rest of the men and horses were all withdrawn to avoid the enemy's firearms.

At the same time, such indiscriminate attacks also plunged the Later Zhou army under the city into chaos. Those soldiers who were injured by their own artillery fire but still had their lives to escape from the artillery coverage area naturally scolded the ballista positions in the rear, and the soldiers who were not affected by the artillery fire also secretly scolded the officials for not treating the soldiers as people, and retreated like a tide across the moat, until they were nearly a hundred steps away from the city wall, far away from the fire coverage of the ballistas, and then stopped under the obstruction of the overseers sent by Zhang Xuanying and the constraints of the commanders at all levels—during which many soldiers were squeezed out of the passage built by wooden planks, Fall into an unfilled moat next to it and drown.

However, although the retreat of the besieging troops was stopped, the rapid retreat of these sword and shield men and spearmen who were responsible for the siege without warning not only inevitably disrupted the formation of flintlock pikemen and crossbowmen who were suppressing fire behind them, but also lost the cover of the sword and shield men and spearmen in front, and the flintlock pikemen and crossbowmen, two teams that were only suitable for long-range attacks, had to retreat to prevent the defenders from attacking them. In addition, as the infantry retreated, the cavalry units of the Later Zhou Army, which were responsible for protecting its two flanks, also hurriedly moved and withdrew with the infantry in order to fulfill their task of protecting the safety of the flanks of the main infantry force.

Although when the Liao army left behind at the head of the city reported the news of the retreat of the Later Zhou army to Cao Jiyun, the Later Zhou army had stopped retreating, and its flintlock pikemen and cavalry also rearranged their formation by virtue of their own quality and usual level of drill, leaving no opportunity for the opponent to launch a counterattack; Although the ballista artillery never stopped bombarding the city, it was impossible for the Liao army to get out of the city through the nearest south gate, even if they had the intention to go out of the city to pursue—and the time it took to get out of the city through the other gates was too long, and there would be no bargain at that time except for ramming the flintlock pikemen and cavalry who had recovered their formation; Although the few casualties inflicted by the Later Zhou army during the retreat – mainly trampling and drowning – did not hurt the vitality of the troops, they still had an absolute advantage in numbers. However, as the saying goes, "one blow, then decline, three and exhaustion". Although the retreat of the Later Zhou army could not be called a rout, both the morale of the army and the fighting spirit of the soldiers had been greatly affected. In addition, this retreat was caused by the indiscriminate attack of their own ballistas, and although the soldiers did not say anything, they must have been extremely dissatisfied with their own commanders in their hearts. In this case, even if relying on the prestige of the generals, the steel swords of the supervising team, and the strict orders of officers at all levels, the soldiers can still be driven back into the attack, but it is conceivable how much combat effectiveness these disgruntled soldiers can exert.

Therefore, after killing a dozen soldiers and their commanders who had taken the lead in retreating, Zhang Zangying had to admit that this attack, which he had pinned high hopes on and thought would be able to complete the battle and take Gu'an City in one fell swoop, had been completely disintegrated because of one of his own erroneous orders. Now, he had no choice but to stop the siege and collect his troops and return to the camp.