Xuzhou.
"fire!"
With a command from Zhang Hengshuo.
The more than one hundred cannons sent by Li Qin began to fire collectively, bombarding the city walls of Xuzhou.
At this moment, Qin Chenyao from Shandong was standing next to him.
They led their own army south on Li Qin's orders, intending to attack the Huai River region and advance south to the south of the Yangtze River.
Anyway, the louder the sound, the better.
We must draw all the attention from Jiangnan to Lianghuai, and also protect ourselves.
To cover their actions in Huguang.
So, in order to make their commotion bigger, Li Qin urgently allocated more than a hundred cannons to them and sent them over day and night by fast horses.
The moment the artillery arrived, he immediately ordered his troops to begin bombarding Xuzhou.
After Hu Zongxian arrived in Lianghuai, with the strong financial support of Jiangnan, he selected and trained the strongest men from among the disaster victims.
At the same time, efforts were made to manage the flood-affected areas such as the Yellow River.
After such a long period of governance, we have seen some results.
The Lianghuai Army, composed of the strongest men selected from among the disaster victims, has undergone several months of training.
Although their combat strength is still not very strong, they have begun to resemble an army.
In addition, the generals in the army were all personally selected by him, and their abilities were quite good.
Although they are still no match for the enemy in open field battles, they can still fight defensively thanks to the advantage of the city walls.
In particular, Hu Zongxian also realized his current priorities, and during this period he focused on training the Huai Army's ability to defend cities.
Xuzhou, a major city in the north, was where Hu Zongxian stationed 50,000 Lianghuai troops.
Zhang Hengshuo looked at the distant Xuzhou city wall. If they were outside, with just 50,000 Huai Army soldiers, he could easily wipe them out with 5,000 Liaodong cavalry.
But now that they're hiding inside the city walls, he's quite helpless.
As more than a hundred cannons began to bombard the city walls of Xuzhou after they cooled down, the walls began to tremble and cracks appeared.
Looking at the cracked city wall, Zhang Hengshuo said to Qin Chenyao beside him:
"Lord Qin, after the city walls are breached, you should lead your troops to launch an attack shortly."
After hearing Zhang Hengshuo's words, Qin Chenyao sighed. He knew that his troops would be among the first to attack the city.
He had been used to this ever since he submitted to Li Qin.
Whenever Li Qin launched an attack, he would first send laborers to fill the moat, then his subjugated troops would be the first to go, followed by the Green Standard Army, and then Li Qin's less elite troops.
When these armies had finished fighting and were close to winning, he would send his elite Liaodong army to reap the spoils of war.
If these armies have fought to the last man but have failed to achieve victory, then they can do it all over again.
In any case, he would absolutely not send his own elite troops to fight to the death.
After all, that was the foundation of his rule.
Only with those troops in Liaodong could he continue to maintain his rule.
With the continuous bombardment of the cannons, the city wall was finally breached.
Upon seeing the collapsed city wall, Qin Chenyao immediately ordered his army to launch an attack.
As the order to attack was given, his Shandong army began its assault on the breach in the collapsed city wall.
They had just braved a hail of arrows to reach the breach in the collapsed city wall and were about to climb up.
The Huai Army soldiers defending the city began pouring out the prepared oil, and immediately after finishing, they threw down a torch.
The fire that suddenly ignited set the section of the city wall that had just been bombarded ablaze.
It burned countless Shandong soldiers who had just climbed up to their deaths.
At this moment, Qin Chenyao, who witnessed all of this from a distance, felt extremely distressed.
Beside him, Zhang Hengshuo held the binoculars Li Qin had given him, remaining perfectly calm.
Looking at the raging fire and the retreating soldiers.
He thought to himself, "Hu Zongxian's preparations in Lianghuai for so long have certainly paid off."
How many more such underhanded tactics are there?
He then glanced at Qin Chenyao, who was standing beside him, looking extremely distressed, after all, these were his troops.
Although in his eyes, the fighting strength of these Lu troops was indeed inferior to that of his elite Liaodong border troops.
But it's still a fighting force, after all.
We should minimize our losses.
There was absolutely no way his Liaodong soldiers would attack the city.
He was very clear about the purpose of his superiors sending him to Lianghuai.
The purpose was to create a large enough stir in the Huai River region to attract the attention of the Nanjing court.
This made them believe that this time they were going to go all out to go south to Jiangnan.
This effectively kept their forces firmly in Jiangnan, preventing them from using their troops to rescue Huguang.
Therefore, his primary task was to create a strong impression, rather than to capture a certain number of cities.
Of course, although his goal this time was to attract Jiangnan's attention, he would still take as many cities as possible.
Upon seeing the Lu soldiers retreat, Zhang Hengshuo immediately ordered his soldiers to continue bombarding the city, while simultaneously using conscripted civilians to continue the assault on Xuzhou.
Use these people to attack and weaken the defenses within Xuzhou City.
Of course, the people used to assault the city walls were also carefully selected.
He has already dispatched troops to recruit people throughout Huaibei.
All women of marriageable age were arrested, while some were kept in the army to provide relaxation for the soldiers.
The other skilled craftsmen were all tied up and sent north.
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