However, Li Laiheng behaved very calmly. When the fighting situation under the city wall attracted all the attention of the defenders, he turned to Miao Lichen and asked: "Can you still succeed?" His tone was unusually calm, showing a high degree of confidence.
Miao Lichen replied: "The tunnel excavation went very smoothly. It seems that all the eyes of Hu Dawei's people are focused on the city wall. It's just that the soldiers digging the city were seriously injured."
"I understand... But again, unless seriously injured, no soldier under the city wall is allowed to return. If you are short of men, ask Waoqi and Junzhen to lead the team to help you replenish them immediately, and fill them in immediately."
Li Laiheng gritted his teeth and said sternly: "Hit me harder so that we can protect our brothers who are blasting in the hole!"
The artillery and the digging of the city were just a cover-up to attract the attention of Chen Yongfu and Hu Dawei. Li Laiheng's real trump card was to quietly dig tunnels and prepare to blow up the underground troops at the city foundation.
In order to make the tunnel more powerful for blasting the city, he specially made a batch of wooden boxes and filled them all with gunpowder. When the tunnel was almost dug, he placed these wooden boxes under the city foundation and ignited them once, and the effect was greater than
There was a lot of digging and blasting on the ground.
In fact, Li Laiheng could also just find some coffins to put gunpowder in, but the rebels just asked Chen Yongfu to concoct the rumor of cannibalism in Cao Camp because of the relatively poor military discipline of Cao Camp. If Li Laiheng really used coffins to explode, it would probably be very fast.
Random rumors that the invading army is going to dig out the dragon veins of Henan or use the dead man's yin energy to break the city will spread all over the world.
He knew that just because the cavalry of the Chuang Army was slightly better at fighting than the official army, many people made up rumors about the fact that the Chuang Army fed their horses with human blood, which was completely contrary to science.
There were still many people who believed it.
"Fuck, blast and siege!"
At night, the offensive and defensive operations of both sides did not stop, but intensified. There were bursts of gunpowder smoke rising from everywhere on the city wall, and then slowly dissipated. Chen Yongfu was shocked by the accuracy of the intruder's artillery. There were at most a dozen of them.
How could their artillery make the defenders so miserable? They obviously had more artillery than Li Laiheng.
Out of sight of the officers and soldiers, Miao Lichen was personally holding a shovel and leading the troops to dig. Everyone felt that what Li Laiheng often said when lecturing the civil engineering team was right, "Sweating is better than bleeding." Everyone worked tirelessly.
, digging hard and digging deep.
The geological soil in the Yancheng area was relatively easy to excavate, and there were no huge rocks blocking the road underground. The project went very smoothly. Seeing that the progress was almost complete, Li Laiheng returned to the Chinese army to deploy troops, because Guojun Town's headquarters was now responsible for the construction of the city wall.
With the task of digging the city to attract the defenders, Li Laiheng asked Hao Yaoqi, Ma Bao, and Aizhuo to be the main siege force after the cave blasting.
As the night got darker and darker, Hao Yaoqi couldn't help but yawn first, which then triggered a chain reaction. Zhang Pixuan, Ma Bao and even Li Laiheng himself felt sleepy.
"The time has almost come."
The night had reached its darkest moment, and the infantrymen who had dug the city retreated. Gu Kecheng, Hao Yaoqi, and Ma Bao gathered about two thousand elite soldiers and horses, forming a team to prepare for the attack.
Li Laiheng took a deep breath and ordered Li Shiwei to fire all the shells. The rebel artillery suddenly became more powerful several times.
Amidst the fierce sound of artillery fire, even a bold and careful man like Chen Yongfu ignored the movement under his feet. Soon, there was only a loud bang that shook the earth, and more than a dozen wooden boxes and kilograms of gunpowder exploded at the same time.
, countless battlements exploded in the huge smoke and dust, and the watchtowers also shook violently and then collapsed crookedly, and countless officers and soldiers guarding the city were directly blown to death on the city wall.
"Go!"
Bugles, war drums and gongs all sounded, and all the soldiers of the invading army shouted loudly and rushed towards the city wall. Although the number of defenders was large, their morale almost fell to the bottom in this earth-shattering explosion.
Especially those Baoding soldiers who were already demoralized dropped their weapons and ran away without saying a word.
Hu Dawei saw that the city wall had been bombed and was in disrepair. The rebels were about to invade the city. He hurriedly led his servants to block it. He personally raised a blunderbuss and aimed it at Hao Yaoqi, who was rushing at the front, but before he could
The cannon exploded when fired, and Hu Dawei's hands and face were injured. The Baoding soldiers fell into chaos, allowing Hao Yaoqi to seize the opportunity and rush over.
It was Chen Yongfu who stood in the way at the critical moment. He and his son Chen De led the officers and soldiers to shoot arrows desperately, causing many casualties to the former Standard Army soldiers who entered the gap in the city wall. Even Hao Yaoqi and Ma Bao were hit by arrows.
When other officers and soldiers saw Chen Yongfu fighting like this regardless of the danger to his life, their morale, which had almost collapsed just now, was finally restored. Some people threw bricks into the gap, some threw bags of gunpowder, and more people fired arrows at the bottom of the gap.
.The first batch of rebels who had attacked were killed and wounded one after another and retreated.
But the second batch of troops led by Gu Kecheng also filled in, and the battlefield became strangely silent. Everyone was fighting desperately. It was almost difficult to distinguish between ourselves and the enemy. No one even had time to shout kill. But after half a second,
Suddenly, the cry of killing resounded throughout the city. People could hardly see anything else but the gaps in the city wall and their respective enemies.
"Fire the gun!"
"Fire the gun!"
Li Laiheng and Chen Yongfu ordered at the same time, and the artillery of the official army and the intruder army opened fire at the same time. The flying shells immediately tore the soldiers who had gathered together in the melee into pieces. Many people were just grazed by the cannons, and half of their bodies were turned into flesh.
mud.
Chen Yongfu, whose face was covered with gunpowder smoke and dust, had a gleam in his eyes. He screamed like crazy and led his servants into the invading army regardless of the flying shells. Hao Yaoqi was unable to dodge and was wounded by arrows on his body and legs.
, fell down, and Ai Zhuo, who was standing next to Hao Yaoqi, could only slowly retreat his team when he saw this.
Gu Kecheng was still shouting to himself: "Go in, go in! Go ahead!" But Ma Bao had already seen that after Hao Yaoqi was defeated, the morale of the siege troops was affected, and the offensive force of the intruders was not enough, and the troops were not strong.
Advantage, this wave of attacks had obviously failed, so he grabbed Gu Kecheng and wanted to retreat together.
But Gu Kecheng refused to take even a step back. In the end, Ma Bao and his personal guard Jiao Da had to directly lift Gu Kecheng up and carry him back to the rear team.
There was another cannon fire on the city, and countless smoke rose. The rebel soldiers who were about to rush into the city fell to the ground, dead and injured one after another.
Li Laiheng had a look of regret and resentment in his eyes, and said coldly: "Pull back the troops, pull back the troops, we have done enough vanguard missions!"
Guo Junzhen also persuaded Li Laiheng that the vigor of the army had lost, and there was no need to charge forward forcefully. Li Laiheng could only reply with a wry smile: "This guard is really difficult to deal with, even more powerful than the mighty tiger."
"Commander, our mission was originally to fight as a vanguard. Now we have not only beaten the army into the city, but also made the city wall full of hornets' nests and opened so many gaps. We have definitely overfulfilled our mission."
Li Laiheng nodded and stopped talking. In his heart, he actually wanted to fight better. Only in that way could all Fu Zonglong's eyes be focused here.
But as it is now, the situation is really not that bad!
Li Laiheng estimated that Fu Zonglong should be rushing to Yancheng at full speed. Xiangcheng and Yancheng were not far away. Fu Zonglong should leave a considerable number of troops in Xiangcheng just in case, and then leave a few troops in Linying to defend Yuan Shizhong. The main force
Then there should be between 20,000 and 30,000 people gathered in Yancheng?
Soon the main forces of the Cao Cao coalition arrived one after another. Only Liu Fangliang and Luo Daien were leading the coalition's cavalry troops to move on the flanks of Yancheng, harassing Fu Zonglong's reinforcements.
According to the intelligence sent back by Liu Fangliang, Fu Zonglong is now personally supervising and leading He Renlong, Niu Chenghu and Henan officer Gao Qian's troops, a total of about 20,000 people, to rush to Yancheng.
"well!"
Li Zicheng jumped off his horse, hugged Li Laiheng into his arms, and praised him repeatedly: "Laiheng is really my horse. This battle has turned the vanguard into the main force. It's so beautiful!"
"A tiger, your righteous son is really enviable." Luo Rucai also teased Li Guo, "I, Lao Cao, would like to praise you. You should be like Li Guo's cub!"
Li Laiheng clasped his hands and introduced the current battle situation to Li Zicheng. He estimated that Chen Yongfu and Hu Dawei had been frightened, and the city wall was in dilapidated condition. Before Fu Zonglong's reinforcements arrived, the defenders would never leave the city to counterattack.
"Well... that's it. I'm afraid that after Fu Zonglong arrives, he will be busy repairing the city defenses and will not dare to attack."
Guo Junzhen, who was standing behind Li Laiheng, still had some ideas about attacking Yancheng. He wanted Li Zicheng to devote his main force to the siege and seize the city in one fell swoop. Li Shuangxi was also impressed by Li Laiheng's beautiful record, and he exchanged pleasantries with Li Laiheng.
After saying this, he immediately invited the enemy to fight: "Father, my son is willing to lead troops to attack the city immediately!"
Li Shuangxi's active petition for war made Tian Jianxiu, who married his daughter, and his good brother Dang Shousu smile. Recently, Li Shuangxi's mastermind Shao Shichang gave him a lot of advice, teaching him to call Li Zicheng "father handsome" and often actively petitioning for war.
, I think the relationship between the adopted father and son should have improved a lot.
However, Li Zicheng told the generals that although Liu Fangliang had been harassing and blocking Fu Zonglong's reinforcements, the first team of government reinforcements would arrive in less than a moment.
Li Laiheng also patted Li Shuangxi on the shoulder, shook his head and said: "Capturing Yancheng is of little significance. Now we should start preparing to turn the sword."
Li Shuangxi couldn't hide his disappointment at all on his face, but Li Zicheng didn't pay much attention and just discussed the next combat strategy with Luo Rucai.
Soon the Generalissimo and Deputy Marshal Cao decided to ask Li Laiheng and Gu Kecheng to withdraw and rest. Governor Tian Jianxiu led the camp to win the bid, and Governor Zhao Yingyuan led Cao's camp with Luo Rucai's flag and drum.
The troops, with great fanfare, pretended to attack Yancheng again, waiting for the cavalry troops led by Liu Fangliang and Luo Daien to withdraw.
After Li Laiheng withdrew all the former Biao Army troops, he looked at the injured Hao Yaoqi and others, and felt a little heavy in his heart, but he still took a breath...
The next step is not to fight, but to prepare to "run".
Tick tock, tick tock...
As he was thinking, a few drops of rain suddenly fell on the brim of Li Laiheng's felt hat, then slowly slid down the brim of the hat and hit the back of his hand.
"It's raining……"
It's raining.
Li Laiheng closed his eyes and imagined the scene of rain moistening the land of Henan, imagining the mud on the road leading to Chengtian Mansion, and imagining how many hungry people this rain would become.
Just a rain cannot save the situation of the refugees in Henan.