Seeing that the Qing army under the city had fallen to the ground, the rest were either careful to stick to the wall or searching for cover, the Ming army's morale was suddenly greatly boosted. After the Qing soldiers approached the gap again, the Ming army officers on the city wall organized the soldiers to take action and rolled the stones down from the wall. The Qing army below had to lower their bodies, half-squat on the ground, hold the shield high on their heads, rubbing forward in small steps.

A Ming soldier was so excited that he poked out his body, aimed a large stone at the shield under the wall, and threw it down fiercely. His heroic behavior caused a burst of cheers. Soon, others followed him and leaned out of the wall to throw the stones. Several Ming soldiers cooperated to raise a long blue brick over the wall and let it go together, letting it land on a row of shields moving forward slowly below the wall.

Unexpectedly, a huge rock fell from the sky, and several Qing soldiers holding shields under them were immediately crushed to the ground. The two soldiers with broken arms rolled from the corner of the wall to the center of the road, holding their arms and shouting loudly.

Under the order of the Qing army's guerrillas, the Qing army archers who shot against Zhao Tianba and others began to attack the Ming army's stone throwers who leaned out. However, the Qing army's position was very bad. They were located behind a low house. It would be fine if they were hidden. As soon as they appeared, they would be discovered on the opposite high wall. Often, these archers just found the target and started to bend their bows to aim at the attack position, the Ming army archers who were waiting to work on their faces had already shot the iron arrows.

After three more archers were shot down, the other Qing army archers shrank their necks and hid behind the cover. The three archers only received the injury of one Ming army. Just now, the Ming army soldier was holding a large stone high above the top and was about to throw it into the city hard. He was hit by a feather arrow flying from the side. He screamed, and the stone in his hand flew out of the city wall, while the person fell backwards.

Two auxiliary soldiers squatted down to support the wounded, pulled open the clothes on his chest and exposed the wound. The arrow did not penetrate deep into his chest. One auxiliary soldier immediately broke the arrow shaft, then checked the wound, shouted, "Hold on, brother!", and then held the end still exposed and pulled it out with force, pulling out the arrow.

"Send him out of the city." Deng Ming kept watching the wounded. He asked the soldier to send him out of the city and then treat the wound. After hearing the order, the auxiliary soldier immediately lifted the wound off the city wall. A fire had already risen outside. When he was ready, he would burn the wound and bandage it.

An injured soldier did not dispel the courage of the Ming army. Most people found that the risk of protruding to throw stones was not high, and the archers on the opposite side had disappeared, and no more feather arrows flew towards the city. Now Zhao Tianba and others no longer continued to attack the enemy, but instead looked at the houses across the street with alert, trying to find the figures of Qing soldiers' archers. The shouts around them became louder and louder, more and more stones were thrown down by the Ming army. The other side of the city wall was also busy, pulling more and more stones onto the top of the city. Despite this, there were complaints that no stones could be thrown everywhere, and this sound became more and more as the Qing army's archers did not show their heads.

The Qing army had already lost eleven archers, more than a dozen sword and shield soldiers and almost a number of spearmen. Despite the price of nearly forty people, the Qing army still failed to touch the gap. The iron arrows of the other party's opponent's attack on morale was too powerful. The guerrillas found that their archers were hiding behind the wall and refused to risk going out to attack the Ming army. The other soldiers were also frightened by the wailing sound of their companions who were caught in the arrow, and no one was willing to lead the way.

If you don’t work hard, you can only hide in the corner of the wall and smash it, or hide in the middle of the house to watch it, which is meaningless to capture the gap. One stone after another falls, and another Qing soldier can’t hold on to the shield. His hand shook, and the shield tilted, and his head was bleeding from the blue bricks. Other Qing soldiers refused to stay in the corner of the wall and were beaten endlessly. With a whistle, these Qing soldiers rushed through the streets beside the wall and rushed into the building area on the other side of the street.

The three archers of the Ming army did not attack these escaped Qing army. Although these iron arrows were good, they were limited in number. They only had a few pots of wolf-toothed arrows in their hands, and now they have used up a small amount.

When the Qing soldiers were dispersed to residential areas, it became more difficult for guerrillas to command them. For example, the archers' behavior of avoiding combat is difficult to stop. If the guerrillas actively urged the archers to attack the Ming army, he himself would probably become the target of the Ming army's archers. The Green Camp guerrillas retreated two steps, and set a little distance from the city wall where dangerous arrows might have erupted, and then looked east. Now he only hopes that the attack on the city wall will be smoother and that the disgusting Ming army archers on the city wall can be driven out as soon as possible.

Unfortunately, the attack on the city wall was not smooth at all. While the Ming army blew down the city wall, it also wiped out the most combative Qing soldiers near this section of the city wall. The Qing soldiers who were not affected were all cautious people who hid far away. When they found that the Ming army climbed the city wall, these timid people immediately ran to the south city tower without looking back. These were soldiers from Anlu Mansion and locals in Zhongxiang City. Some of them threw down their military uniforms and fled home. The rest had nowhere to escape, so they had to wait on the city tower for fate to arrange.

After the Hanyang General led his troops to arrive, the Qing soldiers who were hiding from afar were reorganized and ordered them to pick up their weapons and advance on the city wall, launch an attack in the direction of the gap, cooperate with the Qing army under the wall to drive the Ming army out of the city and restore control of this section of the city wall - the general had not decided to break through at that time.

The Qing soldiers had to pick up their weapons, lined up again to set off from the city tower, and shouted loudly to launch an attack on the Ming army.

Zhong Xiang's city wall was not very wide. After deciding the space occupied by the walls on both sides, it was enough for three or four people to walk side by side. The enemy opposite the Qing army was not Deng Ming's personal guard, but some of Liu Tichun and He Zhen's war soldiers and auxiliary soldiers. The elite war soldiers followed Liu Tichun and He Zhen rushed over. There were few soldiers with poor combat effectiveness left near the gap. They had similar status to the soldiers of Zhongxiang County, and many of them were former Qing soldiers who surrendered to the Ming army in recent battles. There were also ordinary people who joined the army. This was the first time they had been on the battlefield today.

After the city wall was bombed, these Ming soldiers advanced from the city wall to the south tower with a arrogant attitude, intending to polite the soldiers on the city tower to persuade the guards on the city tower to surrender. Among them, the Qing soldiers who had just surrendered to the Ming army were full of confidence in their actions to persuade them to surrender. Not long ago, they were in the same desperate situation. The panic and horror in their hearts were still fresh in memory. These Qing soldiers planned to use their own experience to show their experiences to prove to the defenders on the city tower that there was nothing scary about surrender.

Everything was going well, but when these Ming soldiers walked towards the city tower, they saw three lanterns rising from the Qing army's flagpole, and they were all more confident and felt that they were in their own way. Although the officers guarding the city tower might still have the intention to resist, most of them joined the army just to have a meal, and the Green Camp soldiers must have no fighting spirit - these former Green Camp soldiers had a very clear understanding of the enemy's psychology.

When they saw a large group of Qing soldiers suddenly surged from the city wall from the high city wall, with dense swords, guns, swords and halberds dazzled, these Ming soldiers hurriedly prepared to retreat. However, they were located on the city wall, with only one road in front of them, either retreating to a distant gap or going down from the city wall. In a hurry, someone wanted to find a rope to hang themselves down the city. Not to mention that they could not find the rope for a while, if they really escaped like this, they would not stand straight in the Ming army in the future.

When they saw a group of Qing soldiers leaving the city tower and driving along the city wall towards the direction of the gap, the Ming army on the city was shaken again. After all, they were different from the companions who threw stones on the gap. They had no battlements to cover the Qing army, and they had no advantage of being condescending. They could not smash people as they pleased and were not worried about fighting back. Seeing the Qing soldiers getting closer, the Ming army became even more nervous. The first row of soldiers on the east side looked around and felt that it was an urgent moment when the city had to retreat.

However, the Qing soldiers who were approaching the Ming army were also nervous. The Qing soldiers who were walking in the front stopped their pace more than ten meters away from the Ming army, shouted hard at the Ming army opposite, and made fierce shouts. Although the Qing soldiers stopped and made way for the passage sideways, their companions behind them had no intention of crossing the vanguard and attacking the Ming army. Instead, they all stopped tacitly and shouted loudly to the Ming army, hoping to scare the enemy to retreat repeatedly by showing their military power.

The vanguard of the Ming army opposite them did not want to retreat, but they were crowded with people behind them and retreated. After hearing the fierce shouts from the soldiers on the front line of the Qing army, the soldiers on the eastern front of the Ming army, who were originally extremely uneasy, were a little relieved and regained some confidence and morale, because they really understood the psychology of the Green Camp soldiers too thoroughly.

The Ming soldiers shouted loudly without being outdone, and at the same time they placed their spears in their hands and shook at the approaching enemy soldiers protesting.

The vanguards of the two armies tried to test each other, and their confidence became more and more. While the Qing army was pressing forward, the Ming army bravely took a step forward. The distance between them slowly shortened. When the soldiers on both sides were about four meters away, they stood still again.

"Um!"

"Um!"

"snort!"

"snort!"

Both sides widened their eyes, blew the beards at the corners of their mouths high, and made a "hum and haha" intimidation. At such a close distance, the soldiers of the two armies could have combat contact. The soldiers on both sides held the ends of the long spears in their hands, poked the gun forward, hitting each other's guns in the air, making crackling sounds.

After slapping each other a few times, no one of the two armies could scare away the enemy on the opposite side. The vanguards on either side were not iron-killed Superman. After a moment of stalemate, the front row soldiers were sweating profusely on their foreheads. The second row of soldiers behind them had been watching the battle for a long time, and they were all aware of the battle situation. After seeing the soldiers at the vanguard sweating profusely, they bravely stepped forward to exchange positions with the vanguards and fought with the enemy soldiers. The soldiers behind were all left in place and would never go forward to cause trouble, ensuring that the distance between the two armies in the front row remained about the length of the two guns.

The soldiers who came on the bench soon felt a little tired. The soldiers in the back row exchanged positions with their companions in front of them one after another. Some of the very brave soldiers even stepped in line and rushed to the front to show their skills.

The newly replaced Qing army had a fat face. After standing up, he first blew his beard like the people before, and then he began to grind his back teeth, biting his teeth squeaking, which was very terrifying.

The Ming soldiers on the opposite side were not to be outdone, but they had to admit that the Qing army had a unique skill, and the sounds made by the three Ming soldiers together were not as loud as those of the other person.

"Is he a mouse?" Several Ming soldiers cursed in their hearts. The man on the other side was too vicious.

"Let me do it." A Ming army officer in the back row pushed away the people blocking him, stalked to the front, stared coldly at the Qing soldiers standing side by side, and suddenly pulled out the sheath without any warning...

The Xicheng Tower had stopped resisting at this time. The guard general Zuo and his personal soldiers died in battle. The remaining An Lu soldiers surrendered and begged for mercy. However, He Zhen did not have time to climb the city tower to take a look.

As soon as the matter at the West City Tower was over, He Zhen hurriedly commanded the main force to launch an attack eastward. Liu Tichun chased the prefect of Anlu Mansion and fought eastward. The Qing soldiers trapped between the two Ming troops still need to be eliminated. At this time, the West Avenue of the City was completely controlled by the Ming army. More than 100 Qing soldiers cut in sections had surrendered, and about 100 people fled to the houses on both sides of the road. Several people and a group of people were still resisting against the walls and facing the doors.

The Qing soldiers who refused to put down their weapons must be eliminated, and the sooner the better. At the same time, they must be wary of setting fire to resist dyingly. If this is true, they must be extinguished immediately to avoid causing a disaster.

For these Qing soldiers who were guarding the houses, although the Ming army was crowded with people and powerful, there was no good idea, and they could not set fire to drive them out of the house by themselves, so they had to block them one by one, and then attacked the main entrance, wall, and roof at the same time. Dozens of people attacked from all directions, rushed into the house and split the enemy soldiers into pieces.

Faced with the careful clearance of the Ming army, which was several times the number of people, or even more than ten times the number of people, these Qing soldiers failed to cause any losses to the Ming army, but they greatly delayed He Zhen's progress.

"Why are these dogs and Tartars so tenacious today?" He Zhen commanded to eliminate the Qing soldiers in more than a dozen houses, totaling 40 or 50 people. Suddenly, he felt something was wrong. In the past, if the Ming army had absolute superior forces entering the city, the Qing army would soon lose its fighting spirit; and although these Qing soldiers could not see the whole picture of the city, they would definitely realize that the Ming army had an overwhelming advantage. He Zhen felt a little confused, and felt that he seemed to have noticed something. These Qing soldiers refused to surrender but defended the house. Do they still expect the prefect and the county magistrate to turn the tables with hundreds of people, and will Zhong Xiang's Qing army still have a chance to turn defeat into victory?

Hao Yaoqi, who was in the north of the city, had similar questions at this time. When he was fighting with the hundreds of Qing troops just now, he felt a little abnormal. The opponent's combat power seemed to be much stronger than the county soldiers in his impression. More than 500 Qing soldiers were not washed away in an instant when facing the Ming army with a unified command of the three thousand. Now half of the Qing army is under the control of the Qing army, and the three hundred Qing soldiers are fighting and retreating to prevent the Ming army from quickly approaching the yamen in the center of the city. The cut-out Qing army has a much stronger resistance than Hao Yaoqi expected. A large number of Qing troops rushed into a big mansion and worked together to defend. Although there were only more than 40 Qing troops, the hundreds of Hao Yaoqi surrounded the outside and failed to rush in.

Although more than 100 Qing soldiers were eliminated, Hao Yaoqi also paid the price of more than 20 casualties. His own side had a superior force of six to one. Although street fighting was not conducive to the development of troops and was quite conducive to the defense of small forces, this number was enough to show that the other side was well-trained and had a good morale.

"Report, a prisoner confessed that there were three thousand Wuchang soldiers in the city!" A personal guard ran to report to Hao Yaoqi.

"Three thousand Wuchang soldiers?" Hao Yaoqi was shocked, but this news explained why the combat effectiveness of the troops opposite was much higher than that of ordinary county soldiers.

"There are more than 1,500 armored soldiers urgently transferred from various counties, plus Zhong Xiang's original armored soldiers, and there are more than 5,600 armored soldiers in the city."

"Huh--" Hao Yaoqi let out a long sigh. If this number is correct, then his war today was still good. He knew that the Ming army in the west of the city had also come to kill - Liu Tichun and Hao Yaoqi's subordinates had already made contact in the northwest city area. He saw that the green flag of the Qing army on the west city tower had disappeared, and it must have been occupied by the Ming army.

"Take the North City Tower first." Hao Yaoqi no longer rushes to urge the army to advance.

More than 6,000 soldiers entered the city, and 5,500 soldiers defended the city. They captured half of the city in less than half an hour. This achievement was enough to make the Ming army proud. Hao Yaoqi felt that the most urgent task was to quickly achieve a commanding height so that he could observe the entire military situation in the city.

Hao Yaoqi slowed down his attack on the south and seized the time to attack the North City Tower behind him, and the Wuchang soldiers hiding in the big house and resisting stubbornly. Since he knew that the enemy was more than 5,000 armored, it would be easy to understand that the defenders in these places refused to surrender. They did not know the scale of the Ming army's attack, and most of them were looking forward to the Qing army's counterattack to rescue them.

"Don't be too anxious, take it slowly." Hao Yaoqi felt that the Ming army was progressing too fast. Until now, the commanding heights were almost all in the hands of the Qing army, which was very unfavorable for the Ming army to control the overall situation. The Drum Tower in the northwest of the city was still under the hands of the Qing army at this time, and Hao Yaoqi sent another army there.

He decided to take action steadily and not give the Qing army a chance to turn things around.

{Piaotian Literature www.piaotian.net Thank you for your support, your support is our greatest motivation}
Chapter completed!