At the same time as the battle on the river, an offensive and defensive battle was also being carried out under the city of Wuhu. Song Jin led an army of 50,000 to launch a fierce attack on Wuhu City. However, just as the battle on the river did not achieve much gain, the siege battle also did not achieve much success.

Although Wuhu City is only a county seat, the city wall is not tall, but because it is adjacent to the Yangtze River, there is a moat outside the city, and the moat is two zhang wide and one zhang deep.

If the army led by Song Jin wanted to attack Wuhu, it had to fill in the moat before attacking the city.

In the first three days, Song Jin ordered people to build a lot of siege equipment, including more than 100 chariots. Under his command, thousands of soldiers of the Jingnan Army hid behind the wagons with dirt on their backs and began to fill in the trenches.

On the city wall, in the face of such a situation, Li Dingguo, who was defending the city, was not polite and ordered a direct artillery bombardment.

In order to defend Wuhu, Li Yanzhi let Li Dingguo move dozens of Franc machine guns on the warship and transport them to the head of Wuhu City. The small size of the Franc cannon is 100 catties, and the large one is only 3 or 400 catties, so it is still very convenient to carry.

Originally, if you defend the city, the red-coated cannon is the most powerful, but the red-coated cannon weighs thousands of catties, and it is too troublesome to carry. Moreover, Li Dingguo's task was to hold Wuhu for a period of time, delay the advance of the anti-thief army, and did not expect him to really block the enemy's 200,000 troops. If the red-clothed cannon is transported to the city, then there will be no way to take it away when retreating in the future, and it can only be cheapened Yuan Chonghuan, such a stupid thing Li Yanzhi will naturally not do.

However, in the face of the thief army that filled the moat, the Franc cannon was also enough, and each Franc cannon had eight or nine guns, and the rate of fire was extremely fast, although the power was not great, but it was not something that the thief army could resist. As long as it can be shot, it is enough to destroy the car.

The sound of "boom boom boom" artillery was deafening, and one after another the moving carts were overturned by the shells, revealing the anti-thieves hiding behind, while the anti-thieves who were not covered by the carts were directly faced with the fire of the fire on the city wall, and they were shot to the ground one after another.

In just one hour, more than half of the more than 100 wagons were destroyed, and the moat was only filled in a small section, which was far from being able to pass people.

Without the car, Song Jin had no choice but to order to continue filling the trenches. Under his orders, soldiers rushed to the moat with dirt bags on their backs, braved the rain of bullets to run to the moat, threw the dirt bags into the moat, and then turned and ran back.

One by one, the soldiers were shot to the ground, and the other soldiers still ran forward with their heads down, desperately throwing dirt bags into the moat. It's not that they are not afraid of death, it's that there is a team of warlords standing behind the battle with sharp blades in hand, and whoever dares to disobey will be executed immediately. However, Song Jin was quite particular, and the soldiers who were ordered to fill the trenches only needed to throw a mud bag into the moat to complete the task, and they could watch others work in the future.

It took more than half a day to fill in a section of the moat fifty zhang long, and it cost thousands of lives to pay for it. There is no way, although Song Jin has many troops in his hands, he does not have long-distance combat troops, because thousands of archers in the army have been transferred to the warship by Yuan Chonghuan, and they are fighting water battles with the imperial court sailors, and they are needed more in water battles. Therefore, Song Jin had no way to suppress the Janissaries at the head of Wuhu City, so he could only be beaten and unable to fight back. Anyway, a large section of the moat has been filled, and you can directly attack Wuhu City.

However, at this time, it was almost dusk, and the battle on the river was over, so Song Jin did not continue the attack, but ordered the withdrawal of troops and returned to the camp.

......

At the head of Wuhu City, looking at the thief soldiers who were receding like a tide, and then looking at the thief army sailors who were camping on the river, Li Dingguo sighed softly, knowing that from now on, he would have to fight independently.

Li Yanzhi had already led the fleet to retreat, and now he was left with his three thousand lone troops to defend Wuhu City, but even so, Li Dingguo was still not afraid, but a little excited to try.

From joining the boy boy camp in northern Shaanxi at the age of 12 to now for five years, Li Dingguo has spent time in the military camp and has grown into a qualified soldier. Especially in the past two years, he was ordered to go to Fujian with Zhang Huangyan to serve under Li Yanzhi, and made many meritorious contributions in the battle of following Li Yanzhi to exterminate pirates, and won Li Yanzhi's trust, so he was entrusted with the important task of guarding Wuhu!

Defending the city with 3,000 lone troops, facing an enemy army of 200,000, it seems that it is almost a life of death. However, Li Yanzhi did not let Li Dingguo defend to the death, but just asked him to drag the enemy as much as possible. If you can drag the enemy army here for one more day, you will give Hong Chengchou in Nanjing one more day to prepare for defense. And if he really can't hold on, Li Dingguo can choose to retreat at any time.

What? Can you safely evacuate?

Li Dingguo has no doubt about this. The thief army on the opposite side seemed to him to be just a rabble, with 3,000 elite guards, where in this world could not he go? What is so difficult about a successful retreat?

"General, it's time to eat!" A soldier walked up to the city, carrying a bamboo basket in his hand, and said to Li Dingguo.

"Have the brothers eaten it?" Li Dingguo asked.

"Except for the sentry on duty, the other brothers are eating."

Li Dingguo nodded, then took the bamboo basket, took out the rice balls inside, and sat on the city wall to eat.

After a quick meal, he inspected the city wall again, and arranged the army for vigil, and Li Dingguo went down to the city and returned to the county office.

After Wuhu City was captured by the thief army at the beginning, it was recaptured by the Fujian Navy Division after defeating Song Jin, the pioneer of the thief army. The officials in the city either surrendered to the thief army or were killed when the city was broken, and now there is no government at all, so Li Dingguo put his Chinese army in the county office.

"General!" The quartermaster clasped his fists and saluted.

"Is the material inventory in the city done?" Li Dingguo asked.

"The count has been completed, and the food in the city is enough for the army to eat for half a year. Other substances are also adequate. The quartermaster replied.

When the city of Wuhu was captured a few days ago, the thief army was defeated, and a large amount of materials were lost, and most of the food and military materials were moved to the fleet, but there were still many left in Wuhu City.

"Don't just think about our army, but also about the people in the city. After the thieves entered the city, many people were robbed, and many families estimated that there was not much food left. Li Dingguo shook his head and said.

"If you consider the people in the city, you might only be able to eat food for more than a month." The quartermaster said with a bitter face.

"One month, that's enough!" Li Dingguo nodded. According to Li Yanzhi's explanation in advance, he only needs to stay for ten days and a half months, and one month is already more than the task.

In fact, as long as the food material is sufficient, Li Dingguo is confident that he can hold it for a longer time. However, there is no problem with food, but we have to consider the problem of ammunition, after all, my subordinates are equipped with too many firearms, and the amount of ammunition they carry is limited, if the ammunition is used up, it will be very troublesome, and there will inevitably be a large number of casualties.

"You don't need to keep too much food, let's keep enough for twenty days, and the rest will be distributed to the people, but it is not for white hair, let the people help transport bricks, stones, wood and other materials to the city, and then recruit the brave ones to help defend the city." Li Dingguo commanded.

There were 20,000 or 30,000 people in the city, including thousands of young and strong men, and with them to help with some chores, the soldiers under their command would be much easier.

After arranging the affairs of the city and inspecting it again, Li Dingguo fell asleep, and he had to take care of his spirits to deal with the next big battle.

......

In the north of Wuhu City, the land and water camp of the Jingnan Army. It wasn't until after dark that the Jingnan army reluctantly set up a camp and began to bury pots and cook food.

"Cabinet Department!" Song Jin came overnight and saluted Yuan Chonghuan with his fists.

"How's the siege going?" Yuan Chonghuan asked.

Song Jin told the siege process during the day.

"It took a day to fill the moat, which is not bad." Yuan Chonghuan nodded.

"It's just a section of filling, mainly because the army in the city is equipped with too many guns and artillery, and most of the carts have been destroyed, and I have no guns and archers under my command, so I can only fill the trenches in the rain of bullets, and the brothers have suffered heavy casualties." Song Jin sighed.

"The officer and army sailors have been repulsed, and the next thing is fine." Yuan Chonghuan said comfortingly.

Although the long-range strength of his army is very weak, there are still more than 3,000 archers and 1,000 musketeers, which are enough to suppress the officers and troops on the city wall.

However, on the second day, Yuan Chonghuan did not order the siege of the city, but rested. After all, they had just experienced a terrible water battle, and the soldiers needed to rest and recuperate, and they needed to restore their morale. And you can also take advantage of the rest to build more siege equipment.

After three days of rest, thousands of troops were sent out, cutting down the trees around Wuhu City, and building hundreds of chariots, more than 200 ladders, and other siege equipment. Of course, the time is too short, and the siege equipment is relatively simple, such as the ladder, which is just a simple bamboo ladder, and the real ladder has wheels and baffles to block feathers and arrows, and a noose mechanism for lifting ladders, etc.

Because he was in a hurry to take Nanjing City, he was no longer allowed to stay in Wuhu for too long, and Yuan Chonghuan didn't have much time to prepare siege equipment.

However, the 200,000 army in his hand, the strength of the army is almost 100 times that of the other party, even if he fills it with human lives, he can take Wuhu City, so there is no need to make it so troublesome.

Three days later, the team had rested and made sufficient preparations for the siege, and Yuan Chonghuan ordered an attack on Wuhu City.

Song Jin was still responsible for attacking Wuhu Xicheng, and Yuan Chonghuan himself was responsible for attacking Wuhu Beicheng, and sent an army to Nancheng to make a feint attack on Nancheng to attract defenders. As for the eastern city of Wuhu, no troops were sent, which was a strategy to encircle the three and lack one, leaving a route for the defenders in the city to escape in order to break the morale of the defenders.

A large section of the moat outside the west city was filled in by Song Jin, and the city could be attacked directly along the filled moat. And the moat outside the northern city had to be refilled. Yuan Chonghuan sent tens of thousands of troops to fill in the trenches, 3,000 people to dig and bag the earth, and the remaining 7,000 to fill the trenches.

In order to boost morale, Yuan Chonghuan gave a reward, as long as he carried a bag of dirt into the river, he would be rewarded with 100 yuan. If you can throw ten bags into it, it is a tael of silver, which can be described as a heavy reward.

In order to make money, countless soldiers rushed to sign up to fill the trenches. When the fireship attacked before, Yuan Chonghuan organized a death squad, and each person was rewarded with a hundred taels of silver, but more than 1,000 people who came back alive successfully received the silver, which made the other soldiers very red.

And now, although they are filling trenches in the rain of bullets on the city wall, the hit rate of the firecrackers in this era is not high, and the rate of fire is not fast, and so many people are filling the trenches together, if you are lucky, you will definitely be fine.

The vast majority of the 200,000 soldiers were from poor backgrounds, and many of them did not want to die at all for the sake of silver. Disgusted that the speed of the cart was too slow, the soldiers ran quickly with mud bags, ran to the moat and threw the mud bags into the river, and then ran back quickly.

"Boom Boom"

"Bang Bang Bang"

On the city wall, firearms and cannons were fired incessantly, and from time to time soldiers carrying bags of dirt were shot to the ground, but the other soldiers did not care at all, and only rushed forward with their heads bored.

Of course, Yuan Chonghuan did not allow the trench soldiers to be attacked by the city, but sent musketeers and archers, close to the moat under the protection of the chariot, and fired at the Praetorian Guards on the city wall to cover the trench soldiers.

"Boom" a shell smashed into a cart, and the cart was smashed to pieces, revealing several anti-thief archers standing behind.

"Bang bang bang" There was a sound of fire, and several of the exposed archers were killed by the firearms.

However, compared to the large number of thieves under the city, the firepower on the city wall seems to be a little weak.

Of the 3,000 Janissaries, there were nearly 500 artillerymen operating the artillery, only more than 2,000 musketeers, and the remaining hundreds were sword and shield soldiers and grenadiers.

However, the enemy army is attacking from three sides, although the enemy army outside the southern city is only a feint, but also has to leave hundreds of soldiers to defend, as a result, the army on the two city walls in the northwest is only more than 1,000, in the face of tens of thousands of enemy attacks, more than 1,000 firecrackers are too few, and the current firecrackers are smoothbore, and the hit rate is very low.

And now it is different from a few days ago, the thief army sent a large number of archers, although the three thousand Janissaries are all wearing cloth armor, the generals still have chain mail on their bodies, and they all wear helmets on their heads, but under the throwing of feather arrows, it still brought dozens of casualties, forcing the city's artillery to deal with the long-range soldiers of the thief army behind the chariot first, and there is no way to stop the thief army from filling the trench.

As a result, Li Dingguo watched as the moat outside the northern city was filled in little by little, and it only took one morning to fill in a large section of fifty or sixty zhang long.

"Damn, the strength of this thief army is not bad!" Li Dingguo put away his contempt for the thief army outside the city, and his expression became solemn.

The thieves and archers under the city were destroyed by the city's artillery, and five or six hundred people were shot and killed, and they were still holding on, and Li Dingguo was surprised by such combat effectiveness.

Of course, Li Dingguo didn't know that the reason why the thief army insisted on not retreating was because of an excellent commander like Yuan Chonghuan. While using heavy money to boost morale, Yuan Chonghuan also stipulated strict punishment measures, and sent a standard battalion to act as a supervising team, and those who dared to retreat without a fight were all executed.

With a carrot in one hand and a stick in the other, these soldiers are obedient, and even if there are a large number of casualties, they are still fighting to the death.

ps: I recommend a book "Round and Round Trip to the Three Kingdoms: Diao Chan Doesn't Look Like a Good Person at the Beginning". It's well written, and friends who like the Three Kingdoms can go and see it.