After a day of fierce fighting, the northern city of Huai'an was finally completely occupied by the Ming army.

In addition to the northern city, Jiacheng and Nancheng were also fiercely attacked by the Ming army, but under the stubborn resistance of the Qing army, although the Ming army climbed the city wall several times, it was eventually repulsed.

After a day's fighting, Su Yan spread the news of the recovery of Beicheng to all armies to boost morale, and at the same time collect prisoners of war, count casualties, and prepare for the next day's attack on Jiacheng.

But to be honest, Su Yan didn't expect to take Beicheng so quickly, and Beicheng fell so quickly that he didn't even have time to make a fuss about the secret passage connecting the outer city.

In the evening of the same day, most of the Ming troops in the north of the city were stationed in the Beicheng District, and requisitioned the dwellings near the Jiacheng, temporarily sent the people living here to the outer city, and set up barricades on the main streets of the Beicheng to prevent the Qing army from going out of the city to attack.

After these orders were issued, Guan Qiu, the Zhongshu Sheren who accompanied the army, also reported the casualties after statistics to Su Yan.

Heavy losses.

This was the first thought in Su Yan's heart after listening to Guan Heiqiu's report.

The main casualties of the Qinglong Left Brigade in the battle today were still due to street fighting, and the main road leading to Nanxunmen from the first standard was paved with a large number of corpses of Ming infantry, and the first battalion that advanced to the front lost most of them, and a total of 538 people were killed in the whole standard, and nearly 1,000 people were injured of varying degrees.

The reason for such heavy casualties is mainly that the first standard stubbornly received several rounds of solid and shotgun shelling from the Qing artillery.

However, the Qing army also paid a heavy price, with thousands of Qing corpses on the main road, including casualties caused by the Qing army's pursuit during the retreat.

In addition, more than 400 Qing soldiers who had not had time to withdraw into Nanxunmen became prisoners, and they were taken into custody along with more than 1,500 Qing soldiers captured in the entire northern city, and the next fate was either to join the punishment camp and become auxiliaries, or to be sent back to Jiangnan to become coolies in mines, factories or construction sites.

In addition to the Qinglong Left Brigade, Ma Xin's attack on the Daichen Gate, Gongji Gate and Wangyang Gate also had more or less casualties, but because the Qinglong Left Brigade took the lead in entering the city after the Lanyuan Gate was blown up, and the friendly forces outside the city should be combined with the outside, so the casualties were not high, and the total number of casualties in the three gates was only 500.

The number of casualties among the men and horses attacking the city from the east, west, and south was no more than 1,000.

Although the casualties on the first day of the battle were a little higher than Su Yan imagined, they also gained a lot, in addition to recovering the northern city, they also heard the reality of the Qing army in Huai'an City from the mouths of the prisoners.

After this battle, it not only killed a general of the Qing army on the spot, but also greatly weakened the strength and morale of the Qing army, especially after witnessing the Ming army's resolute determination under several rounds of artillery bombardment, it left a very deep psychological shadow in the hearts of many Qing troops who withdrew to the city.

The phrase "it is easy to shake the mountain, and it is a pity that the Su family army is difficult" also gradually spread among the Qing army defending the city.

At the same time, in order to prevent the experience of Lanyuan Gate from being staged again, Nikan also ordered to increase the number of patrol batches at each gate, and pay attention to listening to the sound of the underground, so as to prevent the Ming army from digging under the city wall again and blowing them up into the sky.

After a day of fighting, everyone was physically and mentally exhausted, so Su Yan only sent additional patrols to guard against the Qing army, and let the soldiers rest well and prepare for the next day's siege.

Therefore, there was no word all night.

On the morning of the next day, the Ming army moved infantry artillery, howitzers and mortars into the north city, aimed at the south smoke gate of the city and began to bombard indiscriminately.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Ma Xin took the lead and personally led the troops to launch a fierce attack on the South Xunmen with Zhang Tianlu, and the foot soldiers took advantage of the cover of these houses close to the city wall, carrying the ladder and the battering ram like a tide, and the Qing army was afraid of the fierce artillery bombardment, and did not dare to leave the city tower easily, so they could only rely on the shooting hole of the city tower to shoot outward to prevent the Ming army from attacking the city.

But how could the sparse firepower network of the Qing army block the offensive of the Ming army, Ma Xin took the lead in erecting the ladder on the city wall, and beckoned the soldiers behind him to climb up the ladder.

"Up! Speed up! ”

At the beckoning of Ma Xin, the soldiers climbed the ladder one after another, and the artillery had to stop the shelling at this time, the accuracy of the current artillery is not high, and if the shelling continues, it is very likely to "severely damage my teammates".

As soon as the cannon stopped, the shivering Qing soldiers hiding in the city tower suddenly rushed to the city wall like a tiger out of a cage, desperately shooting at the Ming army clinging to the city wall like ants.

Clusters of arrows, projectiles, stones, rolling logs, etc. were used by the Qing army to the extreme, and the stones were smashed downwards with all their might, and all the Ming troops who were hit screamed and fell heavily from the air, and immediately lost their breath when they fell to the ground.

"Hold on!"

The Qing army general shouted loudly, his voice fell, and a Ming soldier with a steel knife in his mouth poked his head out, and the general directly stabbed the spear into the chest of the Ming army, the latter's eyes widened, and the steel knife in his mouth was loosened, and the general pushed the man down with a single force.

In order to hold the city, Nikan moved all the horses he could mobilize to the city wall after the cannonfire stopped.

The Manchurian soldiers and the Mongol soldiers carried war bows, and were assigned to the four gates outside the city, and the Mongolian Niu Lu Zhangjing Chaganbala took his subordinates to climb the city wall of the Nanxun Gate, and just ran up the city wall, he saw a Ming army intending to jump into the city wall from the cloud ladder, he immediately drew the arrow as quickly as possible, took the bow and led the arrow, and shot the Ming army accurately.

He then shouted in Mongolian: "Spread out, don't fight in close combat, shoot with a bow!" ”

The addition of this one of Niulu's Mongol soldiers relieved a lot of pressure on the Qing army in Nanxunmen, these Mongol soldiers were skilled archers, and after they entered the battle, the casualties of the Ming army besieging the city increased.

Su Yan also discovered this, and under his instruction, the light infantry of the Qinglong Left Brigade rushed forward in a skirmish line, and with the help of the cover of residential buildings, they carried out accurate sniping at the Qing soldiers emerging on the city wall.

Chaganbala came out of the battlement, just about to shoot the Ming army climbing on the ladder, he just appeared, the next second, the experience accumulated on the battlefield for many years made his scalp numb, and subconsciously retracted back into the wall, but before he could completely retract, a lead bullet hit his helmet, leaving a small bullet hole on it.

Almost killed on the spot, a cold sweat broke out on Chaganbala's back, and before he could catch his breath, he saw a subordinate not far away leaning out and trying to release an arrow.

But in the next second, a lead bullet hit him in the chest, and the subordinate let out a wail, and his body fell forward, and the whole person fell from the six or seven meters high city wall.