Although Xu and Cheng did not have much hope for what Zhou Sanlang thought was a good solution, out of consideration not to dampen his enthusiasm, Xu Shaoan still said: "If San Lang has any good way, just talk about it, don't be too formal." ”

Hearing this, Zhou Lang turned around, organized his words, and said: "Although my subordinates have been temporarily sheltering in the small village for the past two days, because the village is not far from Gu'an City, my subordinates have also sneaked to the vicinity of Nancheng where the two armies are fighting this morning. His subordinates found that although the Zhou army had blown a hole in the southern city wall, due to the desperate resistance of the Liao army defending the city, the infantry of the Zhou army had not been able to attack the city. At that time, his subordinates also lamented that although the Liao army was inferior in weapons and inferior in numbers, it seemed that it was higher than the Zhou army in terms of fighting spirit. In the face of such a high-morale army, it is impossible to win without paying a certain price. ”

Seeing that Zhou Lang didn't say what he had to do to break the city quickly, but blindly praised the Liao army, Xu and Cheng began to be a little impatient, and even began to wonder if the other party had really voted for the Khitans, and this time they came to be lobbyists. Just when Xu Shao'an was about to speak out to stop the other party's praise of the Liao army, and then ask him about his purpose of raising the Liao army in this way, Zhou Lang finally realized that he seemed to be too far away from the topic, and hurriedly pulled back: "However, when the subordinates told the two masters about the escape that day, they suddenly thought that since the subordinates and all the brothers could withdraw from Gu'an City through the tunnel, then the Zhou army could naturally sneak into the city secretly through the tunnel. Then, when the Zhou army attacked the city, they came out of the city, came to join forces with the inside and outside, and killed the Liao army by surprise and took Gu'an City in one fell swoop. ”

After listening to Wednesday Lang's suggestion, Xu and Cheng, who didn't have much hope for him, couldn't help but light up and nodded. Xu Shaoan said: "What San Lang said is a good way to save effort. If when our army is attacking the city, there is suddenly a strange army from behind, not too much, as long as there are three or five hundred people, it will definitely be able to make the Liao army's position chaotic, and it will be a matter of course to break through Gu'an City. ”

"I just don't know if that tunnel has been discovered by the Khitans, and if the entrance to the city can still be used after a big explosion and fire?" Cheng Fei said with some concern.

"It's easy." Wednesday Lang patted his chest and said, "After dark, my subordinates will go to the tunnel in person and find out after some investigation." ”

Although Xu Shaoan and Cheng Fei were unwilling to let Zhou Sanlang take another risk, under the insistence and repeated requests of the other party, the two still agreed to let him explore the tunnels - as for how to tell Zhang Zangying about this matter, Xu Shaoan would handle it. Of course, there was still some time before it got dark, and the top priority was to pick up the guards and "dark feather" guards hiding in the small village first, especially the two seriously wounded. Therefore, after obtaining permission from Xu and Cheng to explore the tunnel, Wednesday Lang said goodbye to the two, and together with the "Dark Feather" guard who came with him and several personal guards of Xu and Cheng, he took a soldier Lang Zhong to the small village.

Zhou Lang and his entourage did not return to the "Shenji Army" camp until the time of the lantern, and they came back with them, in addition to a dozen personal guards dressed as crop men and "dark feather" guards, there were also two stretchers, on each lying a seriously wounded man who had been preliminarily diagnosed and bandaged by the military man.

Everyone entered the camp, two seriously wounded were carried to the camp tent of the army Langzhong to continue treatment, and the others went to the Chinese army tent of the "Shenji Army" to meet Xu Shaoan and Cheng Fei. After seeing that the ceremony was over, Xu and Cheng arranged for them to have the sumniest dinner in the past few days, after encouraging everyone a few words.

After eating, the "Dark Feather" guards had their own personal guards of Xu and Cheng to take them to rest, but Zhou Lang and other personal guards stayed behind to discuss the matter of exploring the tunnels at night - after hearing about this, those personal guards under Zhou Lang were unwilling to let their squad leaders risk alone, and they asked to go together. In the face of the insistence of the brothers, Wednesday Lang also had to nod in agreement.

After some discussion, everyone finally decided to form a team of six people, including Zhou Lang, Xu Shaoan's personal guard leader Xu Yong, and his two personal guards, to explore the tunnel at night.

The six-member team set out at midnight and went to the tunnel entrance a few miles away, west of the western city wall of Gu'an City. Although both Xu Shaoan and Cheng Fei were very confident in the trip of the six-person group, after Wednesday Lang and the others set off, the two did not sleep with confidence, but sat in the big tent and waited for news. And as time passed little by little, the two gradually changed from confidence to a little uneasy. Just when the six-person team had not returned for two hours, Xu Shaoan couldn't help but want to send someone to the west of Gu'an City to inquire about the situation, and the guards guarding outside the tent finally came in to report that "Wednesday Lang and Xu Yong are asking to see each other outside the tent." ,

Hearing that Zhou Lang and Xu Yong were back, Xu Shaoan hurriedly asked them to enter the account to speak. After the two entered the tent to greet the ceremony, Zhou Lang told Xu Shaoan and Cheng Fei about the investigation. He said that the exploration of the tunnels was very successful, and not only did it not alarm anyone in the city, but also obtained a lot of news in his favor. Among them, the first is that this tunnel connecting the inside and outside of the city is intact, and the Zhou army can use this tunnel to enter Gu'an City at any time without worrying about being discovered by the defenders of the city.

The second piece of good news is about the exit of the tunnel inside the city. After the destruction of the mansion where the tunnel exit was located was used as a secret stronghold by the "Dark Feather" Gu'an Branch, Cao Jiyun also sent some soldiers to guard there at first, and later as the Zhou army came to the city, and no valuable clues were found in this ruin, Cao Jiyun transferred the soldiers to defend the city, and no longer paid attention to this large piece of broken bricks and tiles that no longer meant much to him. The local residents around the ruins have long regarded this place as a vicious place because of the terrible explosion and fire that day, and few people want to pass through it at night or even during the day. This means that after the Zhou army drilled out of the tunnel, not only would it not be discovered by the soldiers defending the city, but the local residents would not notice their arrival.

The third piece of good news has less to do with the tunnel itself, but with the guarding of the west gate of Gu'an City near the exit of the tunnel. After Zhou Lang, Xu Yong and others explored the tunnel, they also had a general understanding of the Liao army fortification at the west gate of Gu'an City. They found that because the Zhou army had taken the south gate of Gu'an City and the nearby city walls as the main direction of attack during the daytime attack, Cao Jiyun had not deployed many troops in Xiangshang, the other side of Gu'an City. According to their rough results, the defenders guarding the west gate of Gu'an City were less than 300 people. If the Zhou army could send three or two hundred elite foot soldiers to infiltrate through the tunnel, it would be able to kill the defenders of the west city gate, and kill the defenders of the south city wall along the city wall, and deal a blow to them.

With these three pieces of good news, the breakthrough of Gu'an City is naturally just around the corner - according to Xu Shao'an's words, with such an advantage, if the Zhou army can't capture Gu'an City again, then there will really be no heavenly reason. Therefore, after listening to the report of Zhou Lang and others, Xu Shaoan did not delay in the slightest, and regardless of the fact that this time had passed, he immediately went to see Zhang Zangying and told the other party the authentic news - if it were not for this, Zhang Zangying, who was afraid of being woken up from his sleep, would definitely have a good "theory" with Xu Shaoan.

Of course, in terms of the builder of the tunnel and the previous use, Xu Shaoan made certain modifications. He told Zhang Zangying that the mansion in the city was secretly purchased by the "Qingyuan" brothers, and was used as a secret foothold for the Great Zhou Dynasty when they fell out with the Khitans. This tunnel is one of the many preventive measures, which is the most effective way to survive when the house is besieged by the Khitans, and it is also a way for the "Qingyuan" brother Zuihou.

As for the reason for the destruction of the house, it is actually easier to explain, Xu Shaoan only needs to slightly change the actual situation at that time. He said that before the Zhou army came to the city, the "Qingyuan" brothers had sent people to Gu'an to contact the Gu'an county commander and a number of officials and generals in the county, intending to persuade the other party to open the city and surrender and abandon the darkness and turn to the light. Unexpectedly, the matter was not secret, and was discovered by Cao Jiyun, a general in Youzhou, who came to the county to supervise the war. After detaining a number of officials in Gu'an County, the other party also sent people to round up the lobbyists sent by the "Qingyuan" brothers in the house. Fortunately, the Khitans' actions were discovered in time, and the lobbyists and the cadres who had been left behind in the house were able to escape through the tunnels - the people set fire to the house before evacuating, so that the Khitans would not find any evidence that could trace the identity of the owner of the house.

No matter how much Zhang Zangying believed Xu Shao'an's words, the final result was the same anyway - Zhang Zangying, who was eager to win, agreed to send an elite team to infiltrate Gu'an City through the tunnel, and when the Zhou army attacked the city outside the city, he took advantage of the situation to kill and take Gu'an City in one fell swoop.

After some discussion with the generals gathered by the two of them, Zhang Zangying and Xu Shaoan finally decided to select 300 people from the two most elite battalions of sword and shield soldiers and flintlock muskeers--200 sword and shield soldiers and 100 flintlock muskeers, and tonight they would take advantage of the cover of darkness to sneak into Gu'an City along the tunnel to make internal response--this scale is basically the maximum number of people that can be lurked in the destroyed mansion in the city, and any more will probably not be able to hide in that ruin. ,

Jihua settled, and the Zhou army immediately took action. The 300 people selected were dressed one by one in clothes suitable for concealing their whereabouts in the darkness of the night, and carried short knives and short guns - the short guns were a kind of short-barreled flintlock pistols developed by Xu Shao'an in cooperation with the weapons supervisor of the Later Zhou Dynasty before the Northern Expedition, which was used in relatively narrow places or when it was necessary to hide weapons, and the total number was only about 100 pieces, just enough for the flintlock muskemen to enter the city - quietly left the Zhou army camp, came to the west of Gu'an City, and under the guidance of the six-person team that had just entered the city to investigate, they infiltrated Gu'an City along the tunneland hid in the ruined courtyard of the house, waiting only for the sound of the Zhou army's siege cannons outside the city after dawn, and the sound of war drums as their order to attack.

On March 20 of the lunar calendar in the sixth year of Xiande (the ninth year of the calendar), the vanguard of the Northern Expedition of the Later Zhou Dynasty, which was determined to win, once again fought in Gu'an City. At midnight, with Xu Shao'an's order, all the artillery and ballista that had been set up by the "Shenji Army" opened fire together, and the southern city wall of Gu'an City was instantly shrouded in huge explosions and billowing smoke rising into the sky.

The shelling, which lasted for nearly an hour and a half, not only blew up the gap in the haode that the defenders had managed to fill with sandbags and dirtbags yesterday again, but also blew up a new gap in the wall on the east side of the south city gate. In addition, unlike the previous day, when the Zhou army only attacked one point and did not involve other offensive methods, the infantry soldiers of the Zhou army attacking the city today were divided into multiple routes, while concentrating their forces to attack the two gaps that were blown up, there were also a considerable number of foot soldiers carrying ladders, and under the cover of flintlock pikemen and crossbowmen on the building and on the ground, they began to climb the city wall in multiple locations to disperse the strength of the defenders and reduce the pressure on the Zhou army at the attack gap.

Looking at the Zhou army that was swarming under the city and attacking from multiple directions, Cao Jiyun, who was standing on the head of the city and commanding his subordinates to defend the palace, knew that victory or defeat was in this move. Therefore, on the one hand, he urged the soldiers to desperately block the Zhou army besieging the city, and on the other hand, he led his own soldiers to shuttle back and forth at the head of the city, acting as a "firefighter" to fill one defensive gap after another.

Although the tactics of the Zhou army today were far more appropriate than the previous day, the drawbacks of Zhang Zangying's order yesterday to bombard areas mixed with enemy and us, causing heavy casualties on his own side, were revealed at this time. Fearing that they would fall victim to their own artillery fire like the day before, many of the Zhou soldiers besieging the city often watched the ballista positions more than 200 paces behind them while attacking. As a result, it not only prevented it from concentrating on the attack, but also demoralized the entire siege force, and its combat effectiveness dropped much compared to the previous day. Under the elimination of the other's strengths, the defenders who were at a disadvantage and the Zhou army besieging the city were evenly matched, and the two sides were deadlocked above and below the city wall, and no one could have the upper hand for a while.

Seeing that the frontal assault was difficult to succeed for a while, Zhang Zangying, who had no more time to waste, finally nodded to Xu Shao'an beside him, who immediately gestured to the herald who was temporarily looking upstairs behind him. As the command flag in the hands of the heralds waved, the drummers, who had been preparing behind the siege infantry phalanx for a long time, immediately beat hundreds of war drums. While the rumbling drums boosted the morale of the besieging Zhou army, it also overpowered the shouts of soldiers on both sides above and below the city wall, and spread throughout the entire Gu'an City. After lurking in the ruins of the secret stronghold all night, the three hundred elite foot soldiers who had been waiting for some anxiety heard the drums, rushed out of the hidden place, and killed the west gate of Gu'an City not far away.

Although the number of Liao troops guarding the western city wall was larger than the previous estimate of Zhou Sanlang and others, this battalion of soldiers, who were mainly composed of villagers, had no Khitans behind them to supervise the battle, and had not experienced yesterday's life-and-death battle, faced the elite of the 300 Zhou army who seemed to fall from the sky and were extremely brave, it was still as Zhou Lang and others expected, but it was washed away in a flash, and then retreated towards both sides of the city wall. The Zhou army's sneak attack detachment ignored the routs who fled to the north of the city wall, and only chased after the Liao army that had scattered in the direction of the south city wall.

The Liao army, which was engrossed in the battle with the besieging Zhou army, was suddenly attacked by its own rout from behind, coupled with the slashing and killing of the Zhou army's sneak attack team that arrived later, and the short guns and shots, the formation was immediately chaotic. The resistance to the siege of the Zhou army under the city was sharply reduced, which changed the original stalemate situation, and the balance of victory had begun to tilt to the side of the Zhou army.

The sudden change in the battle situation was unexpected by Cao Jiyun, who thought that he could repel the attack of the Zhou army again and held on until the arrival of reinforcements led by his own coach Xiao Siwen. At this time, he couldn't care about pondering where these hundreds of brave and abnormal Zhou troops came from, and the only thing he wanted to do now was to lead his own soldiers to wipe out this Zhou army that almost fell from the sky, and bring back the battle situation that was already very unfavorable to him. ,

However, when Cao Jiyun rushed towards the Zhou army with his own soldiers to sneak attack the team, Zhou Lang and Xu Yong, who had been eyeing him for a long time, no longer wanted to give him any chance to turn the tables. Under the cover of the other four guards, the two took off a long cloth bag with their backs behind their backs at the same time, took out the "Five-Five" rifle from it, aimed at Cao Jiyun not far away, and pulled the trigger. And almost at the same time that Zhou and Xu pulled the trigger, Cao Jiyun, who was leading people to rush forward to kill, suddenly froze, raised his head backwards, and sprayed two blood mist on his forehead and chest, and then his tall body fell straight down.

Although the sound of the two rifles firing at the same time was very loud, under the cover of the sound of shouting and killing, the clashing of weapons, the beating of war drums, the sound of more than 100 handcuffs firing one after another, and the clean and neat actions of Zhou and Xu in shooting, shooting, and retracting their guns, the action of the two sniping Cao Jiyun did not attract the attention of the soldiers on both sides who were concentrating on fighting to the death with the enemy.

Although the sniping of Zhou and Xu did not attract the attention of others, it was impossible for Cao Jiyun to suddenly fall to the ground and die in anger during the charge. Just when a group of Khitan soldiers surrounded and inspected their main general, Zhou Zhoulang and Xu Yong, who had already put away their guns, also lost no time in shouting at the same time: "Cao Jiyun is dead, Cao Jiyun was killed by Zhou's musket." ”

As Zhou and Xu shouted loudly, first the guards around them shouted, and soon, all the Zhou soldiers who heard the shouts also shouted. So, in just a moment's time, almost the entire southern city wall of Gu'an heard the shout of "Cao Jiyun is dead". As the most resolute person to resist the attack of the Zhou army, Cao Jiyun can be said to be the backbone of the entire Gu'an defenders. Hearing that he had been killed by the Zhou army, regardless of whether the news had been confirmed or not, the determination of all the Liao defenders on the southern city wall to resist the Zhou army lost the basis on which they relied with the news of this.

Seeing that the defense line of the Liao defenders had been significantly loosened with the appearance of the sneak attack troops and the news that Cao Jiyun had been killed, Zhang Zangying and Xu Shao'an, who had already moved their command position from behind the artillery position to only 200 steps away from the city wall, and had been paying close attention to the movements of the city head, immediately put their reserves into the siege battle, hoping that it could become a straw for Zuihou to overwhelm the camel. At the same time, Zhou Lang and Xu Yong, who sniped Cao Jiyun, shouted "Cao Jiyun is dead" while leading 300 warriors to kill Cao Jiyun's own soldiers. Their purpose was very simple, that is, to kill Cao Jiyun's own soldiers and cut off Cao Jiyun's head, so as to prove to the Liao army that was still resisting that his main general was indeed dead, so as to end the siege and defense of the city wall as soon as possible and reduce unnecessary casualties - both the enemy and us.

This move by Zhou and Xu had a very good effect, and as Cao Jiyun's head was raised high by the Zhou soldiers with a spear, the battle on the southern city wall of Gu'an County soon came to an end.

At noon on the 20th day of the third month of the lunar calendar in the sixth year of Xiande (the ninth year of the calendar), the vanguard of the Northern Expedition of the Later Zhou Dynasty captured Gu'an County.