A scene in history reappeared, and a large group of people appeared at the head of Xinhui City, under the supervision of the Qing soldiers, braving artillery fire to carry bricks and stones to fill the gap.

The Ming artillery fire apparently paused for a moment, but then continued to bombard the city walls. Li Sixing's hand holding the telescope burst out with green tendons, but his face was gloomy, but he did not give the order for a ceasefire. Although the artillerymen were shocked, they continued to fire when they saw that the commander's banner had not changed.

At the head of the city, people continued to fall under the sound of artillery, most of them were city people, but these people did not seem to have the intention of fleeing, and still risked their lives to serve the Qing army defending the city as they did many years ago.

The words of the Qing army threatening the people are almost the same as many years ago, "Once this city is lost, I will send troops to counterattack, and on the day of recapture, this place will be Yangzhou!" ”

The war completely distorted people's psychology, and Zhu Yongxing studied the reaction of the people of Xinhui, but he was puzzled, so he had to use this relatively general generalization.

Future carnage overwhelms the fear of death in reality? Completely lost hope in the Ming Dynasty, thinking that in the future Xinhui would definitely fall into the hands of the Qing army again? Or is the ferocity and brutality of the Qing army more than the Ming army, in the spirit of bullying the soft and fearing the hard? Or......

It cannot be a single reason that can make the people of Xinhui full of the spirit of "seeing death as home" and serving the Qing army with "initiative". Not only repairing the city wall, but also climbing down the city wall and moving the "bundles" into the city one by one. These people took advantage of the soft-heartedness and benevolence of the Ming army, but they served cannibal demons.

The artillery fire of the Ming army gradually stopped, not an order issued by Li Sixing, but the artillery should cool down and rest, and move forward. Looking at the increasingly busy people in the city, Li Sixing was both resentful and sad, but he was helpless. The shelling continues. However, the collapse of the city wall was already a secondary goal, and suppressing and destroying the Qing artillery on the city was the main goal.

A long time passed, and after noon, the Ming army still did not carry out any more shelling. The small gaps in the city wall have all been repaired, and the Qing generals are also celebrating. The trick of thinking despicable and shameless has worked again.

But the development of events was beyond the expectations of the Qing army, and before noon, the thunderous cannon rumbled again. Not only was the Hongyi cannon pushed closer, but the muzzle of the cannon was also lowered, and the cannonballs slammed into the middle and lower parts of the city wall with a whistling cannon, and the masonry flew sideways, and the smoke and dust filled the air, and the earth began to tremble again.

Dozens of Hongyi cannons. Concentrated bombardment of a very short section of the city wall is not trivial. Soon, gaps appeared in the walls, and there was a tendency to get bigger and bigger. Tianwei cannons are also being fired, sending flowering shells or solid shells to the city, destroying the artillery of the Qing army and killing and injuring the lives of the Qing army.

Next to the gap, there are people who are "not afraid of life and death" and "work hard". Carrying earth, wood, bricks, and stones, filling in the broken city walls. But the artillery fire of the Ming army did not stop. The battle line on the ground stubbornly and persistently advanced forward, and the artillery of the Qing army was sparsely stretched. In the end, he lost his voice completely.

"Report, our army has advanced to within 200 steps, please give instructions to the general."

When Li Sixing heard the signal corps' report, he nodded lightly and finally gave the order to stop the shelling. This distance was already within the range of the bombardment cannon, and the Qing army wanted to counterattack the city. The Ming army also had a buffer, and could use muskets to kill and injure a large number of enemies.

……………

The sun slowly sinks towards the west, like a large round mirror as red as a pill, and the further down it goes, the more bright red it becomes. The red light stained the surrounding blue sky and white clouds, enveloping Xinhui City after a day of attack and defense. Red as blood. Stinging a person's eyes.

"Dig a tunnel at about 300 paces, lead to the city wall, and prepare for blasting, which can be completed by dusk tomorrow at the latest." After Wang Xie finished speaking, he buried his head in eating, waiting for Li Sixing's decision.

"If the artillery is used intensively, it is not a problem to destroy the city walls. Even if it's not centralized, it will take a long time, and it should be fine. The question is-" Qian Bangchen stopped talking, smiled bitterly, and lowered his head.

The tent made eye contact, and did not speak, except for the sound of chewing.

Li Sixing's face was expressionless, chewing, swallowing the food in his mouth, and then he said: "Trouble the engineering troops to speed up the excavation, the sooner the better, please ask Director Wang to be responsible for the excavation and blasting." ”

"The last general commands." Wang Xie arched his hand, at this time he was not lecturing in the martial arts hall, and it was the duty of a soldier to obey orders on the battlefield.

"Tomorrow, the artillery will be moved to the south of the city, and Director Qian will be asked to send a competent officer to command and concentrate on bombardment." Li Sixing turned to Qian Bangchen again, "Even if you can't collapse the city wall, you can still attract enemy forces and provide favorable conditions for attacking after the blasting in the west of the city." He also troubled Director Qian to personally sit in the west of the city, and after blasting the city wall, he commanded the artillery to bombard the sky with Tianwei cannons and sky-bombarding cannons to cover the infantry charge. ”

"The last general commands." Qian Bangchen followed Wang Xie's example, and also gave Li Sixing face.

A smile appeared on Li Sixing's face, and then he stood up solemnly, glanced at the other generals, and said in a deep voice: "Wei Junzhong, Zhang Guoyong, Lei Chaosheng, Yan Weilong, Peng Yingbo-"

"The end will be." Five men stood up and saluted.

"You all lead your headquarters, prepare for the siege, and after the successful blasting tomorrow, Yan Weilong's department will take the lead in charging, first control both sides of the gap in the city wall, and protect other troops from entering the city." Li Sixing's gaze slowly swept over the five people, and one by one he ordered, "Wei Junzhong led his troops to attack to the north, Zhang Guoyong led his troops to attack south, and Peng Yingbo and Lei Pilgrim led their troops to sweep the city." ”

"The last will obey."

"When attacking the city, you must move forward bravely, and you must not take half a step back in any situation, otherwise you will be punished by military law." Li Sixing stood up with aggressive eyes.

Yan Weilong hesitated for a moment, and asked tentatively: "If the Qing army drives away the people-" Suddenly, he felt that someone had kicked him, and he hurriedly stopped his mouth.

"The last general will understand." Wei Jun took a step forward, expressed his position on behalf of several people, and said loudly: "No matter what means the enemy uses, it will not be able to stop the pace of our army's attack. ”

The corners of Li Sixing's mouth turned upward, and he said with his jaw headed: "Occupying Xinhui and destroying the enemy is the first priority." Others, as a soldier, still don't think too much. ”

"The last will understand." This time, the five of them were unified in their thinking, Yan Weilong secretly scolded himself for being stupid, and almost forced Li Sixing to say something that really shouldn't be said explicitly.

……………

The night was deep, and the yamen in the city was brightly lit. Several Qing army generals sat together with heavy faces to discuss the defense of the city.

"I didn't expect the Ming army to have so many artillery pieces and be so sharp." Adjutant General Xu Chenggong frowned, very distressed.

It was really unexpected that the first day of the attack and defense was like this, even in the face of the endless siege tactics of Li Dingguo, the king of Jin. Nor was it shocked by the intensive bombardment.

"It's the Hongyi cannon of the Ming Army's water division." Staff General Wu Jinzhong's spirit was a little sluggish, he was the main general in charge of the defense of Xicheng, and he was hit hard by a day's shelling.

"No matter where the Hongyi cannon came from, the Ming army seems to have changed its tactics." The chief soldier You Yunlong pondered and said, "Do you want to rely on artillery to break through the city?" ”

"Isn't the enemy a lot of artillery, let it bombard hard, let's block it hard. It is necessary to see if there are more people in the city, or if their artillery is more powerful. A cold light shot out of Sheng Dengke's eyes. Said coldly.

Chief soldier Xu Erxian rolled his eyes and glanced at Sheng Dengke almost imperceptibly. You Yunlong, Xu Chenggong, and Sheng Dengke all participated in the Xinhui Battle that year, and they can be described as ruthless and inhumane. In contrast, Xu Erxian won in Zhaoqing with his defensive skills, but he was better than them. However, he is a guest general, and there are many people such as Yunlong. He didn't have much to say.

"The enemy's kind of hanging artillery is also very powerful. It's so close to the city, can you go out of the city to capture or destroy? General Wu Jinzhong subconsciously plucked out his ears. A cannonball that crossed the city wall exploded not far from him, shocking his ears with discomfort.

Xu Chenggong and Sheng Dengke glanced at each other, but neither said anything. But apparently, both of them were afraid of this, and did not agree with it very much, or preferred that someone else do this dangerous errand.

"What do you think?" From Yunlong to Xu Erxian. Asked politely.

Xu Erxian smiled faintly and said: "It's just a day's bombardment, the enemy wants to take the lead and deter and intimidate, we can't do what the enemy wants." Reckless! The art of war has clouds: one is prosperous, then it declines, and three is exhausted. The defense of the city has been organized, as long as it is dealt with properly, how long can the enemy be strong? ”

"Lord Xu." You Yunlong nodded and smiled, and said, "The enemy has a thousand means, and I have certain rules. Back then, the puppet king Dingguo was menacing, with many means, and the attack and defense were several times more tragic than today, and Xinhui was still immovable, making the puppet king return with a feather. Although the Ming army has the advantage of firearms this time, but the skills are only this ear, what is there to fear? ”

"Your Excellency is wise."

"In my lord's words."

Several generals admired one after another, and some of them became more depressed, thinking about the tragedy of the war back then, and feeling that today's bombardment was nothing more than that. The psychological effect made these butchers Qiu Ba happy again, clasping their arms and shouting, it seemed that the defeat of the Ming army was just around the corner, and a few people were able to make great achievements and get promoted.

When the group was dancing wildly, the sound of explosions, gongs and drums suddenly sounded in all directions, and several people were immediately shocked, and there was only one thought in their hearts: The tactics of the Ming army were really different, and this began to attack the city at night?

……………

Under the hustle and bustle of tens of thousands of villagers, and the artillery of the Ming army fired one or two cannons from time to time to cheer, the Qing army defending the city spent a tense night. This action was not only to harass the tired Qing army, but also to cover the excavation of the tunnel.

The sun rose again, another day, and the day after the Ming army launched its official attack on Xinhui. The red light was sprinkled to indicate that it would be a bloody day.

Others may not have this emotion and psychology, but Li Sixing and the generals are different. After the order was issued in a rough manner last night, everyone conducted detailed research and discussion, and had a clearer plan for how to quickly break through the city defenses, how to coordinate operations in the city, and so on.

When Li Sixing ascended the platform and raised his binoculars to look at the blood-stained city, he felt a surge of confidence. Because the sappers dug overnight, the progress was ahead of schedule, and if it was at this rate, it would have been completed almost by noon.

Tunnel blasting in Yunnan Province showed great might, coupled with Zhu Yongxing's attention, not only in the lecture hall has become a specialty, and the team continues to expand, the technology is also becoming more and more sophisticated. There are relatively mature plans for how to excavate, how to support and drain water, and how to create a more powerful gunpowder chamber to increase the blasting effect under different soil conditions.

Since the work of the sappers was proceeding smoothly, Li Sixing also made corresponding adjustments after consulting with everyone. The artillery in the west of the city did not need to bombard the city, and all moved to the south of the city, so as not to shake too much, but it might collapse the tunnel that was already close to the city wall.

The Qing army in the city discovered the movement of the Ming army's artillery and general flags, and immediately guessed that the Ming army was going to attack one side, and also made corresponding adjustments. And Li Sixing just dangled a shot, and when it was time for the general attack, he would not move the flag, but he wanted to quietly return to the west of the city and command the attack.

Chief of Staff Wu Sansheng also rushed over with several staff officers. Ma Bao pretended to be sick, but at the critical moment of breaking the city, he couldn't hide behind. It's good to let Li Sixing "carry the black cauldron", but whether this young man can command properly, they also have to be cautious and observant, plus guide Jian Yì from the side.

"Listen to the damn ×, after the city wall collapsed, they all rushed forward for Lao Tzu. No matter who is in front of you, whether he is a soldier or a citizen, those who stand in the way kill, kill, kill! Retreater, slash! Those who hesitate to advance will be cut ......" In the infantry camp of the main attack, several generals shouted at their officers.

There was not much time, and the officers who had returned began to yell at their soldiers again: "Only advance and not retreat, don't tell me what is ahead, and don't waste time asking for orders." It's forward, forward! Kill those who stand in the way, whether it is the Qing soldiers or the people, kill them all! There is an order on it, those who retreat, slash! Those who hesitate to enter, slash! ”

"Ordinary people want to be killed?" It's not that there are no soldiers who ask this question.

"Fool, bastard! You don't do anything, wait for them to disrupt your formation, and then the Qing soldiers behind them rush up and hack you to death? If you want to die, get out of the way and die, don't bother the brothers next to you. ”

Even if none of the soldiers asked such doubts, the officers had to dissect the stakes to them. The musket bayonet, which is leaning on the formation, takes turns to shoot, step by step, relying on the strict order of the formation and the collective strength. If you can't maintain the formation and fight separately, then I don't know how many more people will die.

The pre-war mobilization was carried out in the midst of such shouting and reprimands, but it is not known how effective it was. After all, such a battle has never been fought, and there is a lack of practical experience from top to bottom. Only by combining this ruthlessness and cruelty with one's own life and the safety of one's comrades-in-arms may be the most convincing. (To be continued......)