The army of the Taiping army did go out.

However, the specific choice of goals was beyond the expectations of everyone in Songjiang Prefecture. Before the start of the war, all the signs shown by the Taiping army were that they set out from Chishang Province, bypassed Dengzhou, and went straight to Wushan. In order to confuse the officers and soldiers, the Taiping army even released the same news in their own army.

The information collected from all sides made Osan Mansion firmly believe that the next target would be itself, and made sufficient preparations in advance.

The general of the Protector Army, Gao Zhou, also approved Cheng Shimeng's request and transferred the last 500 cavalry stationed in the Closed City Mansion to the Wushan Province area.

However, the Taiping played a joke on them.

The original route of the army was indeed towards Osan Mountain. But just as they had bypassed Dengzhou and approached an official road fork in Wushan Province and Fengcheng Province, the army suddenly made a sharp turn, turned around and advanced at full speed in the southeast direction. Abandoned the Osan Mansion and killed the closed city!

A beautiful hand!

Starting from the closure of the city, the 500 cavalry, who had arrived at Wushan in advance for more than 200 miles, had just rested for less than two days and had to hurry back again. But at this time, the army of the Taiping army had already entered the territory of the closed city, and bypassed several county towns under its jurisdiction, and came straight to this city.

The abrupt change caught everyone off guard from the lockdown.

Due to the all-out strangulation of the Taiping army's horse team, the scouts sent by the city were wiped out after twenty miles out of the city, and almost no escapes were made. By the time the defenders of the blockade received the Taiping Army's sudden change of goal and killing themselves, the Taiping army's army was only two days away from the lockdown.

What is this time for?

The official government that sealed the city did not even have time to relocate the surrounding people into the city.

It was also thanks to the Taiping army that they changed their strategy and now no longer used the means of driving the people to attack the city. Otherwise, just sealing the peasants in the ten miles and eight villages near the city would be enough to help the Taiping army fill the moat and blow the morale of the defenders in the city by the way.

Under the frightened gaze of the defenders, the army marched out of the Sealed City.

In the space of an afternoon, the Taiping army quickly set up camp. Because the cavalry of the official army has already suffered a loss in the van formation, it is likely that they will not be fooled again. This time, the Taiping army did not plan to design the remaining official cavalry, but mainly to prevent cavalry harassment.

The means they had prepared for this was still to prevent horse trenches.

In addition to their own camp, the Taiping army dug a trench around the camp again, and the excavated soil was piled up on the inside to form an inclined plane. The addition of an extra ravine, combined with the battalion's own defensive system, would have almost dispelled any thought of the officers and cavalry.

Of course, the amount of work in this project is much larger than that of Yuyang Fuxia.

When outside Yuyang City, because of the special terrain, such as the topography of the Banyang River, the Taiping army only needed to take care of the east. There were no such conditions outside the lockdown, and the Taiping army had to prepare on three sides at the same time. Fortunately, this time the Taiping army was able to mobilize more manpower, supplemented by a large number of rejecting horses recovered after the previous siege, and the defense system of the camp was very solid.

As soon as Qiē was ready, the Taiping army began...... Await!

More than one general came to ask why the Taiping army didn't attack immediately, but Chen Wu just smiled incomprehensibly and told them that the time had not come.

No one knew what Chen Wu was waiting for, only Chen Wu himself knew.

Throughout the ages, before the fall of a dynasty, it was often coincidentally accompanied by various natural disasters, and this is also considered to be a sign that a dynasty's "luck has run out". In "Empire", in the years after the collapse of the Qianyuan Empire, there were also various disasters. Taiping County, one of the five major grain-producing areas, has experienced locust plagues and then droughts within three years.

And Songjiang County, the richest, has also not escaped the design of the server's brain.

In Chen Wu's impression, the Lockdown Mansion ushered in an earthquake at this stage.

The epicenter of the earthquake is not far away, because the lockdown wall has been very long since it was last repaired, and the heavy rainfall in Songjiang County has eroded the foundation of the wall. This earthquake, which was not too large, actually collapsed a corner of the city wall, directly revealing a gap of more than 30 meters, which allows people to enter and exit directly!

As a result, the houses in the lockdown government were damaged in different ways, killing and injuring hundreds of people. A group of pirates seized the opportunity, took advantage of the situation, tied up the son of the Li family, a famous wealthy businessman in the city, and extorted one million gold coins before releasing them.

Although Chen Wu couldn't remember the specific time, it was probably this time in May or June. It was precisely because he knew that this earthquake could happen at any time, so he would be anxious to take a short rest after capturing Chishang Mansion and immediately march towards the lockdown city.

Of course, dragging the blessing of the Taiping Army, that gang of pirates should have no chance to sneak attack the city.

In this sense, the Li family owes him Chen Wu a million gold!

For five days, the Taiping army, under Chen Wu's orders, only filled the moat and launched a tentative attack, but never really attacked the city. Some careful generals already feel that something is abnormal. Moreover, the siege equipment carried by the Taiping army this time, they also found it. In addition to some of the stone throwers, the Taiping Army also carried a batch of knife carts!

This weapon, which first appeared in the Taiping army, was a two-wheeled vehicle that was built to be extremely strong. The body of the car is very wide, there are three or four layers of wooden frames in front of the car, each layer is fixed with multiple sharp knives, and the body has long wheels for soldiers to push.

Once the walls were collapsed by an earthquake, the city defense battalion defending the city would surely realize that something was wrong and make amends, making an array of them at the breach. The knife cart, which was originally mainly used to defend the city, can work wonders in this situation. Of course, the premise is that the infantry must help clear a road that can be used by knife carts to clear guò.

In front of such a knife cart, the defense of any soldier is a joke.

The array of heavy infantry may be able to block the ...... Chen Wu was not sure about this, but the city defense battalion that sealed the city definitely did not have hoplites.

Noon on the sixth day!

The army and horses that came from the side of Osan had already arrived near the blockade. They did not understand the abnormal behavior of the Taiping army, but they did not dare to take it lightly, so they could only remain vigilant at all times. There was also a faint commotion in the Taiping army, but with Chen Wu's prestige at this time, this commotion did not affect him in the slightest.

Everyone was just wondering what General Tiangong was thinking, not doubting whether it was proper to wait like this.

Seeing that the sun had risen to the zenith, Chen Wu went out for a shake as usual. Seeing that there still seemed to be no movement, Chen Wu couldn't help but be a little disappointed, it seemed that the earthquake was still not today. But just as he was about to return to the Zhongjun tent, a large number of birds suddenly rose from the woods in the distance, and they fluttered their wings and flew high.

There seemed to be something inexplicable in the air.

Even the water in the moat became muddy in a short period of time, and the water level fluctuated.

"It's coming!"

Chen Wu suddenly had a premonition in his heart, and looked at the old city wall of the closed city opposite the Taiping military camp!

A few seconds later, the ground shook!

The quake, whose epicenter was only a kilometre away from the lockdown, shook the ground violently. Many of the soldiers were defenseless and shouted in panic. The few tents in the camp that were not firmly planted also collapsed in the earthquake. The cattle and horses roared uneasily, and some even broke free from the reins and rammed through the Taiping camp.

During the lockdown, more than 100,000 people seemed to have seen the end of the world, and one house after another collapsed.

However, none of this can compare to the shock brought to them by the lockdown of the northern wall.

In the last second of the aftermath of the earthquake, cracks appeared in the walls that had been standing for an unknown number of years. Although he tried his best to support it, he was completely crushed in the last shock wave and collapsed.

Large pieces of rubble and the earth filled in it rolled down all over the ground, and along with the seven or eight soldiers of the city defense battalion who happened to be on the city wall at that time!

The walls are more than six meters high, and countless rubble and cemented earth are rolling down, and those who fall down are doomed!

When the ground was completely calm and the people initially calmed down from the panic, the scene in front of them stunned the Taiping army and the defenders in the blockade.

The northern city wall, which had guarded the lockdown for many years, was crumbling in this sudden earthquake. A place near the east corner of the wall was shaken down a large gap, and more than 30 meters were vacated. The farthest away rocks and dirt were shaken and flew dozens of meters away. Through the gap, the soldiers of the Taiping Army can even clearly see the situation inside the closed city!

Even if Chen Wu had already known in advance that this would happen, he still couldn't help but shout at this moment: God help me!

"Taiping Army, attack!"

Without any hesitation, and not even waiting for the Taiping soldiers to calm down from their awe of the natural disaster, Chen Wu seized the opportunity and immediately gave the order.

The generals under Chen Wu were already stunned by this natural disaster. Even if he had long been mentally prepared for Chen Wu's mystery, he still couldn't suppress the complicated feelings in his heart, and some people even didn't dare to look at Chen Wu at this moment with their eyes, so they respectfully accepted the order and went down to start organizing an attack.

Due to a certain amount of preparation in advance, coupled with the fact that this earthquake was extremely beneficial to the Taiping army, the Taiping army reacted quickly. When the order was issued, the two Taiping battalion brigades took the lead in completing the whole team and rushed to the gap in the north city wall.

In contrast, the unprepared lockdown was much slower.

The panicked soldiers defending the city, and even many of them did not dare to stay in the city any longer, for fear that a possible aftershock would cause the collapse to spread to both sides. The chaos and changes in the city also touched the hearts of many local soldiers. But after all, they had a geographical advantage, and they were very close to the place where they collapsed. When the Taiping army was assembled, Kankan rushed through the moat, and approached the gap, more than 100 soldiers of the city defense battalion who sealed the city also arrived first under the leadership of the officer. didn't care about lining up in an array, and sacrificed himself to plug the gap in the city wall!

Everyone knows that if the Taiping army is allowed to rush in like this, the entire lockdown will be over.

However, without the advantage of the city wall, how many people can be in the closed city by relying on the defenders to fill it alone?