In fact, Cao Ergou had also thought about attacking Yongkang City before, but Xiong Ben, who had even suffered defeat, had already become a frightened bird and defended Yongkang City very strictly. In addition to digging deep trenches and setting up equipment, he also sent people to set fire to the weeds and trees around the city. Even the slightest proximity to the city will be driven away, not to mention the chance of a successful sneak attack. Therefore, Cao Ergou did not hide the march, but only sent guards to drive away the scouts under Xiong Ben. When the advance march was still two miles away from Yongkang City, he ordered the march to stop. Further on, it may be hit by the long-range weapons of Yongkang City. This distance is far beyond the range of large trebuchets, but it is close to the range of large bed crossbows. The new annex army of Yongkang is mainly composed of the original box army and bandits, only a small number of light siege equipment, and lacks heavy siege technology, but in line with the caution of carefully sailing the ship of ten thousand years, Cao Ergou ordered to sort out the formation here. At this time, the Thunderbolt army was in the shape of a long snake, and this marching array was very vulnerable to sudden attacks. Cao Ergou must first organize a defensive formation to gain a firm foothold, and then organize a siege.

Sure enough, just as the soldiers of the Perak Army were busy carrying artillery and arranging defensive positions with sappers and shovels, the west gate of Yongkang City suddenly opened, and a large number of Xiong Ben's men suddenly rushed out of the city and rushed straight to the Thunderbolt Army array. Xiong Ben also knew that the defenders of the city could not be defended to death, if they waited for the Thunderbolt army to set up a formation, the artillery alone could make the defenders of Yongkang City drink a pot. If you want to hold the city, you must destroy the Thunderbolts' artillery, and now is the best time. At this moment, standing on the tower of the city gate, he also saw that the formation of the Thunderbolt army was at its most chaotic at this time, so he decisively sent people to launch a surprise attack, aiming at the artillery and ammunition of the Thunderbolt army.

Xiong Ben wanted to take advantage of the Thunderbolt army to gamble when his foothold outside the city was not stable, and in addition to the fact that he had 500 outlaws under his command, he also had grenades and artillery during this time. In order to win with one blow, the defenders of Yongkang City basically poured out their nests, and the fifty dead soldiers selected by Xiong Ben were at the forefront, and the task of these dead soldiers was to use grenades and gunpowder packs to blow up the Thunderbolt army formation and blow up the siege artillery. In fact, both sides understood that the Thunderbolt army, which had lost its artillery, would not only not be able to capture Yongkang City, but might be defeated. The grenade owned by Xiong Ben was modeled after the unexploded dumb mines of the Thunderbolts, and the artillery was imitated after looking at the shape of the Thunderbolt guns. There are also smart people among these bandits, and after several tests, they have made dozens of grenades and two clumsy cannons. In order to make these firearms, Xiong Ben has exhausted the iron in Yongkang City, and even the iron pots and kitchen knives used by the people have been scavenged. In the process of trial production of firearms, more than 10 craftsmen and soldiers were killed, and even the Taoist priest in charge of trial production was blown blind in one eye.

Just as the gates of Yongkang were wide open, the Perak soldiers began to form a hastily formation under the command of the officers. Fortunately, there were still two miles away from the city gate, which gave the Thunderbolt army a few minutes of reaction time, and because Cao Ergou was extremely strict with military discipline and training on weekdays, so when the new Yongkang army rushed to the near place and began to bend the bow and draw the crossbow, the Thunderbolt army had already formed a defensive line - the giant shield was in front, but the strange thing was that the pikemen did not line up behind them, but protected them on both sides. The arrows rattled the huge shield, occasionally through the gaps between the shields, causing the unfortunate Thunderbolt soldiers to let out screams and muffled grunts from time to time. While the crossbowmen were firing their arrows, the new annex of Yongkang City did not stop, and the fifty dead men with grenades continued to charge towards the shield array, while the rest of the soldiers divided into two groups and made a detour to the sides of the Thunderbolt army. Xiong Ben's wishful thinking was to use crossbowmen to suppress the front of the Thunderbolt army, let the dead rush to the front of the battle to fight grenades, blow up the Thunderbolt army's formation, and then defeat the Thunderbolt army in one fell swoop through numerical superiority and three-sided attack.

It's just that the ideal is very plump, but the reality is very skinny. When the fifty dead soldiers stopped at more than 30 meters away, which was the maximum distance a grenade thrown, took out the fire they were carrying, and began to light the fuse of the grenade, dozens of iron pipes stretched out from the gap between the huge shield array of the Thunderbolt Army, which were the muskets that the Thunderbolt Army put into the battlefield for the first time. After a round of gunshots, the dead man at the front fell to the ground, and the grenade that had been lit but not yet thrown fell to the ground, blowing the rest of the dead to pieces. However, several dead soldiers still threw grenades before they were blown up, and two of them were thrown behind the giant shields, knocking several giant shields and more than a dozen Thunderbolt soldiers behind them to the ground. The new annex soldiers, outflanked from the flanks, were not having a good time, and they unsurprisingly received a bombardment of grenades falling from the sky. The new grenade was thrown faster, had a lower dud rate, and naturally had a higher density of firepower, and for a time the dead and wounded were on the ground in front of the Thunderbolt army.

The huge casualties caused the soldiers of the new Yongkang Annexation Army, who were still screaming just now, to collapse directly, and they all turned their heads and ran wildly, and fled into Yongkang City in an instant. The Thunderbolts did not chase after them, but continued to build artillery positions and fortifications while clearing the battlefield. The explosives scattered on the ground can suddenly attack, the wails of the wounded soldiers are really piercing, and the corpses strewn across the ground can block the way forward, all of which need to be cleaned up. This round of charging only took a few minutes, but he lost more than a hundred people, which made Xiong Ben, who was commanding at the head of the city, both shocked and frightened. At this moment, he finally understood that the imitation firearms were not as good as the Thunderbolt Army after all, and his subordinates could not defeat the Thunderbolt Army after all, and this Yongkang City was afraid that it would not be able to defend it. However, giving up easily is by no means Xiong Ben's style, he wants to inflict the maximum damage on the Thunderbolt army before the fall of the city, both to vent his hatred and buy time for himself to escape.

Two loud cannon shots suppressed the cries of the wounded soldiers on the battlefield, and it was not the Thunderbolts who began to attack, but the only two cannons of the new annexed army. These two loud noises made Xiong Ben's subordinates, who were originally demoralized, start screaming wildly again. It's just that the laymen look at the lively and the insiders look at the doorway, and they see the smoke rising from the artillery position, and they don't know that the shells fired did not hurt the Thunderbolt army at all. However, although the shells fired from the city were too far away, it seemed that the range could reach the vicinity of the Thunderbolt position. This made Cao Ergou anxious, if he was allowed to continue to test and adjust, even if one shot hit the Thunderbolt army, it would cause more than a dozen casualties. At that moment, Cao Ergou ordered the installed artillery to be re-aimed and bombarded all the gun positions on the right and left of the city gate tower. At this time, his admiration for Ouyang Xuan deepened, and he finally understood the reason why Ouyang Xuan insisted on fighting Yongkang City first. If Xiong Ben is allowed to develop firearms for a period of time, Yongkang City will definitely become a thorn in the throat of the Thunderbolt Army.