"Attack again!" Wu Sangui ordered while gritting his teeth.
Countless Guanning troops once again launched an attack on Songshan Castle from the east, west and south of the city.
While both sides were engaged in a siege battle, a field battle also broke out outside the city.
To the east of Songshan City, Man Dahai led an army of 20,000 to attack the Ming army in the east of the city.
To the west of Songshan City, Shangshan led an army of 30,000 to attack the Ming army to the west of the city.
The same is.
Both sides had chariot camps in the front, infantry camps and firearms camps in the back, and cavalry protecting the two wings.
The difference is that the overall armor rate of the Ming army is higher than that of the Eight Banners soldiers.
The two sides used chariots as barriers and fought outside the city.
The soldiers in the front aimed their firearms at each other and started hand-to-hand combat with cold weapons.
The archers behind kept shooting arrows at the enemy's army.
Buzz!
Countless arrows flew out from the formation like locusts, drawing an elegant parabola in the air.
The arrows clanged on wood and metal.
The arrows hit the unarmored soldiers in the back row, and the sound of them piercing their flesh was drowned out by their screams.
"ah..."
After a burst of screams, the soldiers who were shot fell down.
The soldiers who were not shot showed expressions of fear.
Death is not scary. What is scary is that death is right in front of us and may come at any time.
If it were a mob, their will would be crushed when the rain of arrows came.
But both sides are elite.
Rely on strict military discipline and strong will to resist harm.
"Shoot, shoot!" The archer general waved his sword and pointed it at the sky in front of him.
The second wave of arrows flew out from the formation...
"Report!" The messenger came to the south of the city and met Wang Yongji in front of the central army.
He rode on his horse and clasped his hands together and said, "Governor, General Wu Sangui requests to withdraw his troops."
"What's the reason?" Wang Yongji asked seriously.
"The army could not capture Songshan in a short time. The Guanning Army, which was fighting the Eight Banners Army outside the city, had to fight the enemy in front and endure the artillery fire from the city wall. The Guanning Army suffered heavy losses..."
"It was the Guanning Army that attacked the city, and it was Wu Sangui's fault that we couldn't take Songshan City. How dare he say such things?" Huang Degong said with disdain on his face.
"No need to blame him," Wang Yongji shook his head slowly, "Songshan City is indeed difficult to attack. Moreover, our army did not surround it on all four sides, but surrounded it on three sides and left one side open. The Eight Banners soldiers can continuously enter the city from the north gate to provide support!"
"In that case, why doesn't the Governor order a siege on all sides?" Huang Degong asked.
"It's not that simple," Wang Yongji shook his head again.
He first said to the messenger: "Tell Wu Sangui that he can withdraw his troops only after the battle ends in the evening."
After the messenger left, Wang Yongji said to Huang Degong: "Besieging a city requires a large number of troops, and our army does not have sufficient troops. Moreover, the main force of the Eight Banners is stationed in the north of the city. Once our army shows signs of siege, they will immediately launch an attack, and the defenders in the city will also rush out from the city gate. Our army is attacked from both sides, and it is difficult not to be defeated!"
Huang Degong sighed, not knowing what to say.
"However," Wang Yongji suddenly laughed, "Songshan City will soon be undefendable."
"Hmm?" Huang Degong was startled. "What do you mean, Governor? Is there a spy from our army in Songshan City?"
"No."
"Then why is the Governor so sure that Songshan City cannot be defended?" Huang Degong asked with a puzzled look on his face.
"Hahaha," Wang Yongji laughed, "Don't you think the central army is short of people?"
"Missing someone?" Huang Degong looked around and found that Gao Yigong was not there.
As far as he knew, Gao Yigong's troops had been serving as a reserve force in the south of the city.
Since the war began, although the fighting in the east and west of the city has been stalemate, the Ming army still has the advantage.
The siege troops suffered heavy losses, but it was not enough to call on the reserve forces to take over.
Where did Gao Yigong go? What did he do?
Wang Yongji began to explain his doubts: "I asked Gao Yigong to dig a tunnel."
"Tunnel?" Huang Degong suddenly realized: "The Governor-General is pretending to attack Songshan City to attract the attention of the Jiannu, but he is actually digging a tunnel to blow down the city wall! What a plank road in the open, but secretly attacking Chencang!"
"We can't help it. Jiannu are too cunning!" Wang Yongji laughed bitterly. "If we dig tunnels directly, they will be discovered by Jiannu. When they think Songshan City cannot be defended, they will abandon the city and flee! When we recover Liaodong this time, we must kill as many enemies as possible while recovering our homeland to reduce troubles in subsequent battles."
"That's why I decided to attack the city openly and dig tunnels secretly."
"Your Excellency the Governor has a far-sighted vision, and I admire you!" Huang Degong bowed deeply to Wang Yongji, "It's just that Wu Sangui and his Guanning Army suffered a lot."
Wang Yongji urged his horse forward and whispered in Huang Degong's ear: "The credit for retaking Ningyuan has already been taken away by him. What does it matter if we suffer some casualties in the Battle of Songshan?"
"That's right!" Huang Degong smiled again.
The two sides fought fiercely for a day, but the Ming army neither repelled the Eight Banners soldiers outside the city nor captured Songshan City.
They could only camp around Songshan Castle.
Before dark, Wu Sangui came to Wang Yongji's central military tent and began to complain.
The casualties caused by the siege were extremely heavy, more than twice that of a field battle.
With the same number of troops, the Guanning Army and the Eight Banners Army suffered a maximum of three to five hundred casualties in a field battle per day.
The casualties in the siege amounted to thousands!
Death does not count.
Among the wounded, except for a small number who were injured by knives and arrows, most of the rest were injured by oversized grenades and burned by Ten Thousand Enemies.
"Governor, if we continue to fight like this, all the Guanning troops will be killed in less than a month!" Wu Sangui muttered angrily.
"What are you talking about, General Wu? Songshan City will be captured soon, and you will make another contribution soon!" Wu Sangui said with a smile.
"It will be conquered soon?" Wu Sangui looked at Wang Yongji as if he were looking at a ghost: "The Governor's joke is not funny at all."
"No kidding."
"How?"
"You'll know in a moment."
"Waiting for what?"
"Waiting for someone."
Before Wu Sangui could ask who he was waiting for, Gao Yigong walked in with tired steps, "Your Highness the Governor."
"Is it dug?" Wang Yongji asked impatiently.
"Okay," Gao Yigong nodded. "The tunnel was dug from a slope a hundred meters south of the city. It's relatively hidden there, so the defenders in the city shouldn't have discovered it! After a day of digging, we've dug it under the city wall. I plan to transport gunpowder inside after dark."
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