It has been more than two years since the Qing army entered the customs, during which it absorbed hundreds of thousands of Ming troops, coupled with the experience of attacking cities outside the pass, Duoduo did not doubt that he would eventually be able to take Xuzhou City.

It's just that how much to pay for this is a question that Duoduo needs to consider.

After all, Xuzhou City was only an obstacle to the southward attack on the south of the Yangtze River, and it was not the fundamental purpose of the Qing army's southern expedition, and it was not worth Duoduo to lose a lot of soldiers and horses for this.

If it was a flat field battle, Duoduo would naturally not take the Ming army seriously, but if it was a siege, the difficulty would be completely different.

However, if he can use this to eliminate the main force of the Ming army, it will cost tens of thousands of more people, and Duoduo is also willing. This is the reason why Duoduo only sent a few thousand soldiers and horses, most of which were still green battalion troops, and only carried out three rounds of artillery salvos - he had to try the reality of this Ming army.

The sheep and horse wall outside Xuzhou was blown out of countless holes in a burst of explosions, and countless Qing soldiers held shields and fished out of the holes in the last sheep and horse wall.

However, while the Qing soldiers rushed out of the sheep and horse wall, they also lost this excellent cover, and the Ming musketeers and archers on the city wall saw this and immediately launched a fierce attack.

"Bang, bang, bang, bang......"

On the city walls, thousands of Ming musketeers and archers, arranged in three columns, fired a salvo at the enemy troops swarming below the walls under the orders of the officers.

Thousands of lead bullets, arrows fell densely like raindrops, the three-layer iron wooden shield was easily broken by lead bullets within a distance of fifty or sixty paces, and the Qing army under the city wall immediately suffered a lot of casualties, the blood mist soared, and the people and soldiers in the front row were like weeds blown by the wind, and hundreds of people fell in an instant.

However, most of this damage occurred to the Minfu and the Green Camp Army, and it was not able to stop the offensive of the Manchu Eight Banners, and the ladder was immediately erected, and countless Qing troops began to brave the attack of lead bullets and arrows to go up the ladder.

Of course, the Qing army would not be so dull and passively beaten under the city walls.

The siege troops have long been divided into two parts, one is responsible for climbing ladders to test the strength of the Ming army, and the other part is responsible for covering the climbing army and reducing the casualties of the climbing troops.

Since Duoduo did not have a plan to take Xuzhou City in a battle, how to find out the reality of the Ming army defending the city with as few casualties as possible, and even lure the Ming army out of the city to fight in the field, became the primary task of this war.

Of course, this siege was only a test of thousands of men, and most of the tens of thousands of troops and tens of thousands of people who had just gained momentum did not enter the battle, and withdrew out of the range of the cannons of the city walls, waiting for the order of the multi-priest.

Behind the remnants of the sheep and horse wall under the city wall, the Qing army's musketeers and archers also fired arrows at the same time to cover their comrades who climbed the ladder under the city.

On the city wall, inside the sheep and horse wall, the two sides used muskets, bows and arrows and other long-range weapons were fiercely clashing, the explosion of muskets, the vibration of bowstrings, the screams and wails of soldiers after being injured, and the sound of heavy objects falling to the ground were suddenly mixed together, the smoke of gunpowder was filled, and the movement was huge, but the casualties were not large.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, the Qing army's troops in the city, which had been attacking rapidly, went further. Seeing this, the Ming army immediately began to draw soldiers from the wall and attack the Qing army.

At the same time, looking at the white smoke rising from the city wall, Xue Lao Er immediately waved his hand, and the thousands of new army elites on the inside of the city wall immediately dispatched.

These new soldiers and horses were already in full formation, and as soon as Xue Lao Er gave the order, he immediately attacked through more than a dozen hidden small gates at the city wall.

Together with the elite of the Ming army, they attacked the Qing army from both the front and the flank, providing cover for the other side.

This was the first battle between the two armies since the official start of the war, and neither side was willing to lose the first battle, which was an extremely serious blow to the morale of the army.

The two sides engaged in a fierce exchange of casualties under the city, and at first the Qing army had a faint advantage. However, as more than a dozen hidden small city gates at the city wall were smashed open, Li Benshen and Hu Maozhen led thousands of armor soldiers from the city to attack and put into the battlefield, and the two armies of the Ming and Qing dynasties gradually tended to balance.

Under the city wall, the narrow strip between the sheep and horse walls made it impossible for the military formations of the Ming and Qing armies to spread, and the cavalry of the Qing army was blocked by the tightly packed military formation, which was even more useless.

However, the cavalry of the Eight Banners were all heavily armoured, and they dismounted as hoplites, and under the command of the officers, they were soon supplemented into the military formation.

The Ming army is still investing troops, and the intensity of the battle exceeds Xue Lao'er and Gao Jie's estimates, and Gao Jie is even ready to send his personal guards, but the Ming army, which throws soldiers through small doors and ropes, is slow and has always been difficult to occupy the advantage of troops.

In front of the two armies' formations, soldiers continued to fall, and soldiers continued to come forward, and both sides were well-trained and experienced in combat, and there were no loopholes because of these casualties.

Kong Youde looked at the anxious battle situation under the city, his heart was anxious, and he saw that the Qing army besieging the city was divided into two by the moat, and he was even more worried that the battle situation would deteriorate, and his soldiers and horses would also be sent.

Hong Chengchou, who was beside Duoduo, also looked slightly solemn at this time, and he was thinking about whether to persuade Duoduo to take advantage of the situation to withdraw from the army.

Even if the troops continue to increase, if the Ming army in Xuzhou City continues to invest troops and horses regardless of losses, the situation will most likely return to the current situation in the end.

In fact, whether it is Hong Chengchou, Duoduo, or Xue Laoer, Gao Jie understands that if both sides continue to invest in soldiers and horses, this battle will continue to be consumed endlessly, and there is a high probability that there will be no winner or loser, but only to increase losses.

Xue Lao Er initially wanted to take advantage of the location of the city wall to consume the Qing army's offensive, and finally forced it to retreat, but now although he feels deeply difficult, he still does not hesitate to continue to invest soldiers and horses, he wants to completely repel the first round of Qing army's attack.

Duoduo looked at the battle situation in front of him, squinted his eyes, and then looked up at the tower with the word "Xue" on the city wall, his face heavy.

On the city wall, Xue Lao Er looked at the fierce battle under the city in the north, and his heart was unmoved, and the situation was still within his expectations. In any case, he had to beat the Qing army before he could order the army to retreat, and if he couldn't fight the military might, it would be difficult to drag the Qing army's southern expedition as much as possible, let alone force the Qing army to continue to stay in Xuzhou and besiege but not attack.

In other words, in this battle under the city, he not only had to win, but also expand the results and annihilate the Qing army as much as possible, so as to completely anger the Qing army and hit the morale of the other party, forcing the commander of the Qing army to take more initiative to attack in order to save the decline, and then expose more flaws.

Now, those who went out of the city to meet the Qing army were the elite soldiers and horses led by Li Benshen and Hu Maozhen under Gao Jie, and these soldiers were not bad in combat effectiveness after more than a year of equipment and effective training. The field soldiers and horses under the command of Xue Lao Er are currently temporarily organized as reserve troops, and they can join the battle at any time according to the situation on the battlefield.

Suddenly, two soldiers with flags behind them rode to the top of the city tower, and then hurriedly handed over the general report to Xue Lao Zhong through the hands of the guards.

"The order is that if the Qing army increases the investment of soldiers and horses, the troops under the city can fight for another quarter of an hour, and then they can fight and retreat, but they must cut off the pursuit of the Qing army." After reading the military report, Xue Lao Er couldn't help frowning slightly, and immediately ordered.

"Musketeers, archers ready to take cover."

Although Xue Lao Er wants to win the first battle, defending the city is his ultimate goal. He was unwilling to make too much consumption with the Qing army under the city, otherwise it would be contrary to Zhou Shixian's strategic purpose.

Defending Xuzhou is the ultimate goal of Xue Laoer, and if he can win a few battles and boost morale, it is naturally the best.

Of course, ordering a retreat does not mean that Xue Lao Er is going to admit defeat, taking retreat as an advance, relying on the condescending advantage of the city wall to set up an ambush for the Qing army, which is also one of Xue Lao Er's preparatory plans.

Nikan led more than 100 carefully selected white-armored soldiers and three Eight Banners soldiers of Niu Lu to rush out of the military formation and fiercely scuttle into the chaotic battle outside the city, which greatly changed the balance of power between the two armies outside the city.

The Ming army, which had not received military orders for the time being, resisted stubbornly at first, so that Nikan's army could not successfully open the situation, but in the face of such an offensive, although it had been prepared, it was only barely supported.

After receiving the order to retreat, the Ming army did not care that the two armies had already engaged in the battle and were in a disadvantageous state, and immediately began to fight and retreat, and could only barely maintain the formation, which looked like it was overwhelmed and about to be defeated.

But the military order was like this, and the two reserve commanders who were originally deployed on one side of the two gates had to carry out the military order.

On the battlefield, it was noisy and noisy, and it was difficult for the war drums and trumpets to effectively convey military orders, and the soldiers could only follow the generals' flag recognition actions.

As the Ming army on both flanks began to retreat, the soldiers of the Ming army, who had crossed the moat, fought fiercely with the Qing army under the sheep and horse walls and the city wall, also withdrew from the battlefield before the Qing army surrounded them.

But the four or five thousand elite Qing troops led by Nikan, Murhu, and Geng Zhongming are killing at this time, where will they take the initiative to let go of this "defeated army" that has its back to itself and fled in a hurry?

In particular, this army had just resisted so stubbornly that the Qing army had paid a heavy price and had already succeeded in arousing the anger of the Qing army.

Thousands of soldiers and horses of the Ming army fought and retreated, retreating all the way, and there were constantly soldiers who were left alone, and were slashed and killed from behind by the Qing army in hot pursuit, and the casualties were quite heavy.

Before they knew it, the pursuing Qing army had all crossed the moat, passed through the sheep and horse wall through the gap, and chased to a narrow area of one or two hundred steps below the city wall. Behind them, all kinds of flags and hundreds of corpses of soldiers of the two armies had fallen, and the smoke of gunpowder was filled, and blood stained the earth.

However, by the time Nikan, Murhu, Geng Zhongming and others reacted and pursued themselves excessively, the Ming musketeers and archers on the city wall were already ready to attack.

"Oh no, fooled."

Geng Zhongming was the first to notice that something was wrong, and immediately stopped his horse and looked up, but saw that on the city wall in front of him, several Ming army flags were shaking vigorously, and the muzzles of countless black holes were facing them.