Even if these three hundred people are already the elite forward soldiers of the Ming army, it is impossible to make them all wear armor. At most, the most dangerous soldiers in the front can wear armor, which adds up to only a few dozen people. Most of them were light infantry wearing only civilian clothes.
As the order was issued, the archers successively fired arrows at the dense formation of the Ming army. These arrows passed over the heavy armored infantry in the front row and fell directly from the heads of the light infantry in the rear.
However, the Ming army seemed to have expected to be intercepted by bows, arrows and muskets. Although more than ten people had been killed or injured, they still did not stop. Instead, they started to launch the final attack under the leadership of the officers, shouting various slogans. charge.
When the Ming army was only more than sixty meters away from the city, the musketeers also completed the second round of loading!
Wang Shanxu didn't waste a second and quickly gave the order to shoot!
And shooting at this distance, the hit rate of the musket can be further improved, and the power of the musket is enough to knock down the heavy armored soldiers in the front row of the Ming army!
With the sound of gunfire, the soldiers in the front row of the running Ming army seemed to have encountered a dam. Almost instantly, more than a dozen soldiers in the front row fell down, most of them still Soldier in armor.
This round of shooting obviously disrupted the rhythm of the charging Ming army. For a while, some Ming soldiers continued to rush forward, but some stopped running and looked back from time to time, while the archers were watching the officers. The leader tried to bend his bow and shoot arrows at the top of the city to fight back.
Although the Ming army's attack continued, it was obvious that the entire formation was in chaos.
Wang Zhitan, who was in the rear, saw this scene and couldn't help but said to Su Jiakang: "Sir, the thieves' weapons are sharp. Should we let the forwards withdraw first and wait a while before attacking?"
At this time, Su Jiakang also frowned. This wave of attack had obviously failed. This failure did not mean the casualties that had been caused so far, but that the rhythm of the attack had been disrupted. The attacking troops had obviously lost the ability to continue the attack. courage.
Although the current casualties of the three hundred forwards are not large, at most there are only more than 20 casualties, this kind of casualties is nothing in a siege battle. In some large-scale siege battles, the attacking party In order to achieve a breakthrough, they often fought one after another, and hundreds or even thousands of people died under the city walls.
The Ming army led by Su Jiakang has more than a thousand people, even if it does not count the three hundred Ming troops who are still on the road in the northwest, even if they exclude the five or six hundred young men recruited temporarily, the main force under his command is There are still more than a thousand people, including recruits sent from Fucheng.
The casualties of more than twenty people were completely bearable for this Ming army, and even without extreme circumstances, it would not cause the slightest disturbance.
But the situation didn't look that way. The attacking troops were still fifty meters away from the city wall, and they had been hit by two rounds of fire cannons and multiple rounds of bows and arrows, resulting in more than 20 casualties.
In particular, the last round of volleys of fire and artillery fired by the puppet Tang rebels killed and injured more than ten Ming troops at once, which was enough to put everyone on the front line of the Ming troops in danger.
We have already suffered so many casualties from so far away. If we were to go twenty or thirty meters further, or even under the city wall, and face the guns fired by the puppet Tang rebels, they would be hit accurately. By then, the puppet Tang rebels would be If a volley of muskets comes over, I'm afraid a large area of our own side will fall immediately.
This kind of panic mentality can easily spread!
Once it cannot be controlled, it will cause complete chaos or even collapse.
Su Jiakang took a deep breath and said: "Ming Jin withdraws his troops and lets the vanguard come back first!"
When Wang Zhitan heard this, he breathed a sigh of relief. Although the Ming army that was charging now were recruits from Fucheng, not his disciples, if these recruits suffered too many casualties, I am afraid that the main force of the next charge would be
It's his army's turn.
But then Su Jiakang said again: "The army continues to prepare. Let the young men at the rear come up, and your Qianhu will also go up. When the forward comes back, we will fight again. This time we will use our entire army. We must attack in one go."
Go to the top of the city!"
Although the first round of the attack was blocked, Su Jiakang had no intention of giving up. He knew that time was on his side now. If he did not seize the limited time and just waited, it would be dark.
, it will be impossible to continue to attack the city after dark. If we wait until tomorrow, those pseudo-Tang rebels may have already established a firm foothold.
Therefore, he must seize the time to fight again!
He couldn't just watch the puppet Tang bandits spend the night peacefully in the city.
Hearing Su Jiakang's words, Wang Zhitan wanted to say something, but in the end he said nothing. Instead, he cast a complaining look at Wu Nuanzhi next to him.
Wang Zhitan naturally knows why Su Jiakang is so anxious to attack the city. If Zhengtai County falls unexpectedly and cannot be recovered quickly, the negative impact will be enough to cause Su Jiakang to be beheaded and his house confiscated. Even Wang Zhitan himself will not be able to survive by that time.
Go there.
It's all Wu Nuanzhi's fault, relying on the support of the government official for his mischief. If he hadn't come up with this series of schemes and lured the main force of the puppet Tang thief army to Zhengtai County, how could Zhengtai County have been breached.
Wu Nuanzhi naturally felt the malice coming from Wang Zhitan, but now he was no longer in the mood to care.
He also did not expect that Zhengtai County, which had two hundred regular troops and hundreds of young guards, could not be defended for several hours, which led to a huge loophole in his strategy.
Now he consciously kept his mouth shut and no longer raised any objections. Instead, he allowed Su Jiakang to take command. He even asked the three hundred soldiers he brought over just now to act as the vanguard and launch the first wave of siege.
He didn't raise any objections.
Now that the situation has become like this, Su Jiakang is responsible and Wang Zhitan is involved, but in the final analysis, the main responsibility lies with him, Wu Nuanzhi.
However, he still held a glimmer of hope and said: "Sir, although this attack failed, it still tested the strength of the bandit army. What they fought was only nearly a hundred fire muskets, and the fire muskets were slow to reload and were close to the enemy.
It only takes a few shots, but as long as there are enough of us rushing forward at the same time, there is still a good chance we can rush forward in one go!"
Having said this, he slightly raised his voice and said: "As long as we can rush in, we can completely annihilate the main force of the puppet Tang thief army and capture the puppet emperor Li Xuan alive!"
When he heard Wu Nuanzhi talking about capturing Li Xuan alive, Su Jiakang also suppressed all the worries in his heart, squeezed out a smile and said: "My army has nearly two thousand people, and the bandit army is only five hundred. As long as the soldiers
It is still possible to fight bravely and recapture Zhengtai County and capture Li Ni alive!"
The forwards of the Ming army came and went as quickly as they came. After receiving the order to retreat from the rear, these Ming troops turned around and fled in droves, leaving only more than a dozen corpses and a few who were seriously injured and unable to retreat under the city.
wounded.
After the recruits came back, Wu Nuanzhi accompanied Su Jiakang to check on them one by one, boosting the morale of the recruits.
Although the first attack of these recruits failed, it is undeniable that their performance was not bad. At least before the retreat order was issued, they did not collapse, but their rhythm was disrupted. If they did not retreat, they would
If we continue to attack, we might be able to reach the foot of the city and start erecting a long ladder to climb the wall.
In addition, these recruits are also relatively elite troops in the Ming army, and we will have to rely on them for the subsequent siege.
Two quarters of an hour later, the Ming army completed preparations for the second attack.
Compared with the last time they attacked the city, this time the Ming army attacked the city with significantly more people. There were recruited soldiers, guard soldiers and young men. The total number of people exceeded a thousand.
However, what is different from the last time is that the most elite recruits are not placed at the front, but at the very back.
The ones at the front were the young and strong men with weak fighting ability, numbering about 300 people. The ones in the middle were the guardsmen led by Wang Zhitan, numbering about 500 people. The ones at the end were the soldiers recruited from Fucheng.
Those young and strong people who were placed at the front obviously guessed that the superiors were going to use them as cannon fodder. Most of them looked ashen and looked like they were about to embark on a dead end. Some even burst into tears and lay down on the spot.
There are people who are on the ground unable to get up, and some people want to retreat secretly.
But whether they wanted to run away or were lying on the ground and refused to get up, they were all driven forward by the Ming army soldiers who suppressed the formation, and those who dared to resist were chopped with swords.
Several Ming army generals were riding on their horses, walking behind Qing Zhuang while shouting: "Anyone who escapes from the battle, beheaded, and anyone who retreats without orders, beheaded!"
Using death as a threat, these young men finally embarked on the offensive!
However, Su Jiakang obviously did not put his hope in these young men, and the regular army was following closely behind.
According to the plan discussed between him and Wu Nuanzhi, since the puppet Tang rebel army had sharp musketry, Qing Zhuang, who was weak in combat effectiveness, was allowed to consume the musketry firepower first, so as to buy time for the main force in the rear to launch an attack on the city.
But this time, Su Jiakang, Wang Wangzhitan, Qianhu, personally held the battle. Without his order, Su Jiakang could never retreat.
In layman's terms, even if you die, you will die on the way to attack!
Even in order to prevent the attacking troops from retreating without permission and collapsing, Su Jiakang had already used the remaining hundreds of reserve troops as a supervising team, many of which were archers.
Time passed bit by bit. When the Ming army advanced more than a hundred meters away, intensive drums sounded from the rear of the Ming army. Then those at the front were only wearing single clothes, without armor protection, and the weapon in their hands was only an iron handle.
The young and strong Ming army with swords was driven forward and rushed forward.
The regular troops in the rear also trotted to follow closely!
The moment the drums sounded, more than a thousand Ming troops launched a full-scale charge. Looking down from the top of the city, there were Ming troops all over the mountains and plains outside the city, almost too many to count. Their momentum was so great that the Huangzhushan bandits on top of the city were like
Their faces all changed, and many people even showed expressions of extreme fear.
Even Butcher Chen, who has always been very courageous, couldn't help but take a breath. This charge of thousands of troops looked too scary.
However, at this time, Li Xuan still looked calm, and even said to the ministers around him with a smile: "Look, they are here to die again!"
But no one saw him. His hand had already grasped the hilt of the sword at his waist, and no one knew that he was shouting in his heart: "It's over, it's over, it's over now!"