As the bombardment progressed, Chai Rongjunchen and all the soldiers of the Later Zhou and Han armies gradually found that the tried and tested "three-step method of siege" seemed to have lost its power under the city of Taiyuan. The earthen bag barrier, which had not been taken seriously by everyone before, and was even ridiculed by many soldiers of the Later Zhou Army, was called a colorful one—the fabrics used to sew the earthen bags were of different origins and types, and naturally there were all kinds of colors and patterns—but at this time it played an unexpected role for everyone. Whether it is a solid cannonball fired by an artillery cannon or a siege powder cartridge fired by a ballista, it completely loses its effect when it hits this earthen wall.

In the past, the solid cannonballs that were indestructible and often cracked or even shattered the enemy's city walls were like a heavy punch with a thousand powers hitting the soft cotton stacks, except for breaking the outermost dirt bags and splashing the mud, or shaking off a few earth bags, it could not cause any substantial damage to the walls of Taiyuan City.

Solid shells could not break or break the outer surface of the city walls, and as a result, they naturally directly affected the effect of the siege powder cartridges fired by the ballistas. A siege powder cartridge that should have been used to use the cracks and damage caused by solid cannonballs to plunge straight into the city wall with sharp heads, and then use the explosive power of the gunpowder in the gunpowder cannale to expand the damage caused by the solid cannonballs to the city wall, and finally completely collapse the city wall.

Although theoretically, if the bombardment of a small area of the city wall is continued, after all the protective dirt bags are blown up and shaken down, the artillery and ballista can effectively destroy the main body of the city wall. However, due to the limitations of the performance of the weapon itself and the influence of the gunner's shooting level, the shooting accuracy of the artillery and ballista of the "Shenji Army" in the later Zhou Dynasty was quite poor, and it was quite difficult to concentrate multiple attacks on a certain place on the city wall with a very limited area. You must know that in the past, the "Divine Machine Army" was aiming at a section of the city wall that was more than 100 paces wide -- even so, only 50 or 60 percent of the shells and siege powder cartridges fired by artillery and ballistas could hit the demarcated range.

Second, the dirt bag barrier on the outside of the city wall is high and thick, and even if a gap is created by a cannonball or siege powder cartridge, the upper part of the wall and the surrounding earthen bag will move to this gap due to the loss of support, and eventually fill this gap, leaving no chance for the next shell or siege powder cartridge to directly attack the city wall. Unless the upper part of the sack fence and the left and right sides of the sack are blown up, the firearm bombardment will not be able to have the desired effect. Even if they really had such a sufficient ammunition reserve, the performance of their front-loading artillery would not allow them to shoot continuously for a long time, otherwise there would be a danger of exploding. But once the artillery bombardment stopped, the Han army defending the city was likely to take advantage of such a gap to replenish the fort with earth bags, and even in a critical situation, the Han army might send brave men to brave the artillery fire of the Zhou army to replenish the fort with earth bags. In this way, it naturally makes it more difficult to destroy the fortifications and collapse the city walls.

Seeing that the bombardment, which lasted for an hour, was just to smash the bags of dirt and blow up the clumps of soil, but did not cause any substantial damage to the walls of Taiyuan City, Liu Guangyi, the commander of the "Shenji Army" of the Zhou and Han armies, immediately ordered the bombardment to be stopped, and ran to Chai Rong to report the unfavorable situation of the bombardment,...,

Chai Rong naturally also saw that the original firearm siege method of a hundred trials and souls had encountered a situation that had never been encountered before under the city of Taiyuan, and the firearm that was originally considered indestructible by everyone seemed to have met its own nemesis this time, and it could not exert the power of the previous thunder and shock the enemy, and it would make the enemy run away and collapse in an instant. It's like a steel knife that is as sharp as clay and cuts into a ball of cotton, and no matter how hard the knife wielders, they still can't hurt the piece of tofu that is heavily wrapped in cotton. Therefore, after listening to Liu Guangyi's report, Chai Rong did not blame him for failing to complete the bombardment mission on time, but comforted Liu Guangyi, who was a little worried in his heart - the rear army led by Liu Guangyi suffered heavy losses in the last battle of Youyun, and now it has suffered setbacks under Taiyuan City, and Liu Guangyi cannot help but worry about his future.

After pacifying Liu Guangyi, Chai Rong turned to the military generals who were watching the battle behind him, and asked everyone what they thought of the current situation, hoping that these ministers could come up with a way to break the enemy's earthen fortress and protect the city.

In the face of this kind of difficult problem that has never been encountered before, the ministers of civil and military affairs present also have different opinions. Some ministers suggested a moratorium on the bombardment, and that infantry should first rush down to the city and tear down the earthen sacks that protected the city, even if it would cost heavy casualties. When the bags were almost cleared, the artillery bombardment resumed, and the city was still broken by siege with firearms.

Some ministers suggested that the method of attacking the city with firearms should be completely abandoned, and that the method of attacking the city should be re-followed in accordance with the previous tactics of attacking the city, and with the support of flintlock muskets, crossbowmen, ladders, building carts, and other types of troops and equipment, a large number of infantry should be sent to attack the city, relying on the superiority of the Zhou army in numbers and individual combat effectiveness to attack the city of Taiyuan -- the minister who put forward this suggestion also particularly emphasized that if the traditional method of warfare was used to attack the city, the earthen ramparts outside the city of Taiyuan would not only not cause obstacles to the soldiers besieging the city. Bags of earth piled up at the height of the walls were more conducive to the infantry climbing up the city, thus turning factors that were not good for your side into factors that were beneficial to your offensive.

Just when the ministers expressed their opinions and it was difficult to unify their thoughts for a while, Zhao Kuangyin, who had not spoken, said to Chai Rong after pondering for a while: "Bixia, the minister thinks that our army should not stick to past experience, nor should it only stick to a certain method of operation, but should integrate various methods of operation and combine them with each other. In this way, the advantages of each tactic can be brought into play, so that the enemy army is overwhelmed. ”

Chai Rong nodded when he heard this, and asked, "What Aiqing said is reasonable. So, in Aiqing's opinion, how should our army attack the city? ”

Zhao Kuangyin replied: "The minister thinks that whether it is only adhering to the method of attacking the city with firearms, or only using the old method of siege, it has its shortcomings and limitations, and our army should use the method of attacking the city with firearms in conjunction with the old method of siege. The minister thought that although the enemy's earthen ramparts outside the Taiyuan city wall could greatly reduce the power of our army's firearms, it would not be possible to collapse the opponent's city in a short period of time as before. However, all it protected was the Taiyuan city wall, and it did not protect the enemy troops on the city.

Therefore, the minister thought that our army could suspend the bombardment of the city wall, but sent foot soldiers to make a siege of the city, so that the enemy defending the city thought that our army had given up the use of firearms because they had made no progress in attacking the city with firearms, and instead attacked the city with the old method. In this way, the enemy defending the city will emerge from their hiding places and return to the city walls to stop our siege soldiers. After the enemy's infantry returned to the city, our 'Shenji Army' seized the opportunity to fire gunpowder packs and siege powder cartridges at the head of Taiyuan City again, killing and wounding the enemy troops who returned to the city. In this way, we can not only give full play to the power of our army's firearms, but also kill and injure a large number of enemy troops, and will not cause any loss to our army's feint infantry soldiers, but it will be a heavy blow to the morale of the enemy troops in the city. When the enemy's morale is low and the division's veterans are tired, it is the time for our army to seize Taiyuan with all its might. ”…,

After listening to Zhao Kuangyin's introduction, Chai Rong nodded approvingly, and just wanted to follow the order, but Zhang Yongde next to him interjected: "Bixia, the minister thinks that although what Lord Zhao said has some truth, and this kind of tactics may indeed cause some damage to the enemy army at the beginning. But as the saying goes, 'eat a trench, grow a wisdom', at the beginning of the enemy army may be in this situation, seeing that our army has the intention of sending foot soldiers to attack the city, will transfer the soldiers hiding under the city to the city to guard. But the enemy generals are not fools, and it is impossible to be deceived by our army's feints to go to the city after being deceived by our army many times and suffering heavy losses. At that time, I am afraid that even if our army's feint attack on the infantry makes a similar appearance to lure the enemy, no enemy will be willing to believe it anymore. In this way, the war will return to its current stalemate. Therefore, the minister thought that instead of making great efforts to arrange all kinds of surprise troops, it was better to follow the old method, launch infantry to attack the city with all his might, and force the enemy army to burrow out of the turtle shell where he was hiding and engage our army head-on. ”

Although Chai Rong was very interested in Zhao Kuangyin's suggestion, what Zhang Yongde said was not unreasonable. Therefore, Chai Rong was also a little hesitant for a while.

Seeing this situation, Zhao Kuangyin hurriedly added: "Official, the art of war talks about 'combining fiction and reality'. If the enemy defending the city is deceived by our army's feint attack and returns to the city from its hiding place, then our feint army will naturally turn around and retreat, making room for the 'Divine Machine Army' firearms to kill the enemy. If the enemy defending the city learns a lesson after suffering a loss, and is no longer deceived by our army's feints, then our feints will be pretended to be true, and the feints will be turned into actual attacks, taking advantage of the enemy's empty city and weak defenses, to attack the city in one fell swoop. At that time, the main force of our army will follow, and the city of Taiyuan will be broken overnight. ”

Zhao Kuangyin's supplementary suggestion strengthened Chai Rong's choice, and he immediately ordered the 20,000 siege troops to be divided into three parts. With 2,000 trench fillers and 3,000 elite infantry as a part, it was responsible for feints; With 5,000 "Shenji Army" as a part, it is responsible for bombarding the city; With the remaining 10,000 elite infantry and another 20,000 elite infantry mobilized from the large battalion as a part, it was responsible for quickly coming forward to respond after the feint attack force turned into a feint attack and occupying Taiyuan City in one fell swoop.