It is said that since ancient times, the two armies have been fighting each other, and the soldiers have always been deceitful.
The Dizi Camp of the Taiping Army dug a tunnel at night last night, and pretended to attack for half a day during the day.
It was a false shot.
They had secretly dug a deep and wide tunnel and transported a large amount of gunpowder inside.
They planned to wait until nightfall to light the fuse and blow up the strong and tall city wall of Lingzhou City in one fell swoop.
However, there were also experts in Lingzhou City who arranged the city defenses like copper and iron walls.
They also knew that the Taiping Army was accustomed to using holes to bomb the city, so they took precautions in advance and hid many five-thunder and firecrackers underground in front of the city root.
The Taiping Army did not take any precautions against this.
Sure enough, one of the soldiers accidentally triggered the concealed cannon signal and detonated the gunpowder they had brought into the tunnel.
More than a thousand people were blown to pieces on the spot.
Even those who were lucky enough to survive , were also buried underground by collapsing earth and rocks.
Since there was too much gunpowder in the secret passage, the power of the blast was extraordinary, causing the city foundation to tremble and shake three times.
The houses in the southern city that were closer to the city wall were also knocked down, crushing many Lingzhou soldiers and civilians to death.
At this time, the Cantonese bandits gathered outside the south gate, taking advantage of the chaos of the city defenders, mobilized their troops amidst the sound of drums and horns, held dense layers of heavy shields, set up ladders, and stormed towards Lingzhou City.
The regiments guarding the city still used mountain-splitting cannons, spears, muskets, bows and arrows, ash bottles, and whetstones to attack each other.
But this group of Taiping troops are all elite divisions from the old camps in western Guangdong.
They have experienced hundreds of battles from south to north.
They are not comparable to the rabble that attacked the city at dawn.
They had already formed a formation with tall and thick leather shields and rattan shields, covering their heads.
It is airtight, and the shields are mostly covered with copper sheets, which can block the arrows, stones and bullets that come in the wind and rain.
The officers and soldiers had no choice but to continuously bombard with mountain-splitting cannons and tiger-crouching mortar cannons.
Although many enemies were killed and injured, the Taiping troops came so fast, like scarlet hurricanes.
The vanguard battalion fought their way to the front and filled the trench with sandbags.
The army behind them crowded through the trench one after another and reached the blind spot at the base of the city where artillery fire could not reach.
They then erected ladders and scrambled to climb to the top of the city. .
The Taiping soldiers who were the first to climb the city were all young men who were as agile as apes.
They were all lean and dark, and they dared to take the lead.
They were not afraid of life or death.
They climbed the ladder and climbed the city as if they were walking on flat ground.
As long as they reached the top of the city , forming a melee in close combat with the enemy, and Lingzhou City would probably not be able to defend it.
Countless Taiping soldiers under the city saw the vanguard battalion ascending to the top of the city in an instant.
They all thought that the city was about to be destroyed.
Their morale was immediately boosted.
They raised their swords and guns like crazy and shouted: "Enter the city and kill all the demons."
"Let all demons be free and enjoy peace."
The shouts of killing were like a roaring mountain and a tsunami, swallowing up everything.
Although Ma Tianxi knew the art of war, he was not a general after all.
He was shaken by the underground explosion and was numb all over.
He was carried to the tower by his followers, and it took him a while to recover.
At this time, he heard a huge chaos on the top of the city.
He hurriedly stood up and looked out from the arrow hole.
When he saw the formation, he knew that the attackers were the elite Cantonese invaders.
Although the Lingzhou Tuanyong relied on their sharp firearms, they risked their lives to fight the enemy.
The army fought fiercely, but lost the opportunity and could not stop it at first sight.
Ma Tianxi was indeed a handsome man who was always calm in times of crisis.
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He hurriedly ordered people to pick up a string of red lanterns on the tower.
This uses the red light as a signal to inform the brave men of each battalion to use "Shang Shui" to defend the enemy at the same time.
This is exactly the "strategy of the marshal and the merits of the generals who charge into the battle."
Lingzhou City is a thousand-year-old city that has always been a battleground for military strategists.
There are many caves for hiding soldiers behind the city wall.
Magistrate Ma had arranged for many soldiers to set up stoves and cauldrons in the cave where soldiers were hidden the night before, and boiled pots of war water.
This mourning water was boiled with hot oil, mixed with dung and lime.
It was boiled countless times.
At this time, it was boiling on its own.
It was packed in wooden barrels and handed to the city wall in barrels from behind the parapet.
Buckets of it were poured down from the top of the city.
Thick shields and heavy cards can block rolling logs and rocks, but they cannot block the material and invisible liquid.
As long as the human skin is touched by the boiling water, a large blister will immediately appear, which will quickly fester and ooze pus, eating away at the flesh and rotting the bones until the white bones are exposed.
If the limbs are burned, you can ask your companions to cut off the limbs with knives and axes in time to save your life.
But once the body and head touch even a little bit, even the gods and Hua Tuo will not be able to save them.
It is extremely vicious.
The defenders on the city poured boiling water on them, instantly scalding them to death and injuring countless Taiping soldiers.
Those who had climbed up the ladders fell down screaming in agony.
The troops swarming to the bottom of the city were also thrown into disarray, and those who died under the water were killed.
There were countless Taiping troops.
The large group of troops had to retreat back.
Lingzhou Tuanyong took the opportunity to bombard the city with firearms, leaving a large number of corpses in the Taiping army.
Although Mr.
Ma looked kind-hearted on the surface, in reality he had always been ruthless and insidious with a greed for killing.
Seeing the mountains of corpses under the city, he did not even frown.
He just secretly resented that he had managed to defeat the main force of the Cantonese invaders at this time.
There is no large group of officers and soldiers on the periphery to rob and kill them, otherwise they can be wiped out in one fell swoop and achieve an unparalleled feat.
As for how the soldiers and civilians in the city rested and took precautions after the Taiping Army suffered heavy losses and was defeated at the foot of Lingzhou City, it is not a matter of course.
Shan said that Zhang Xiaowei had wrapped the Mastiff's dog head and returned from Huangzhan Ridge at dawn that day.
He happened to encounter the Cantonese invaders attacking the city.
Seeing that the situation was not good, he hurriedly turned around and hid in the ravine.
He only heard the roar of killing in the direction of Lingzhou City, and had no idea how the battle was going, so he did not dare to act rashly.
It was not until dusk, when he saw a large number of Taiping troops retreating and the sound of gunfire gradually disappearing, that he dared to sneak back after nightfall.
Under the city.
After a whole day of fierce fighting, all the gates of Lingzhou City were closed tightly.
Zhang Xiaowei came to the city gate in the dark and saw that the dead bodies under the city were piled one on top of another, some with bullets and arrows, some with arms and heads missing, People with broken stomachs and intestinal bleeding were all dead.
Even the trenches were filled with wild boars and wild rats vying for food.
He couldn't help but be shocked by what he saw, so he hurriedly shot a loud arrow into the air, and asked the people at the top of the city to put down bamboo baskets to respond.
Sun Mazi waited on the city wall for a day and a night, and the rest of the officials had already fled.
But even when the fight with the Taiping Army was at its fiercest, he always stayed on the city wall, fearing that he would miss Zhang Xiaobian'er's signal.
Seeing that it was getting dark, I thought that Zhang Xiaobian'er must have died in the rebel army.
I was thinking of finding an excuse to leave the city to find his body.
However, I heard the sound of arrows breaking through the wind, and I quickly put down the bamboo basket and took Zhang Xiaobian's body.
The son picked it up.
Most of the world's friendships are based on the word "profit".
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There is not much gold and deep friendship, and most of the friendships that are not profitable are just verbal friendships and fair-weather friends.
However, the two of them escaped together and were close friends in life and death, so they are extraordinary.
At this time, they saw that each other's faces were covered in blood, but luckily they were both still alive, and they were overjoyed.
Zhang Xiaobian'er and Sun Mazi straightened their clothes and went to see Governor Ma together.
After the Guangdong invaders retreated, they gathered their soldiers and armor dozens of miles away.
At this time, they still tightly surrounded Lingzhou City.
Lord Ma didn't dare to rest.
He was busy counting casualties and deploying troops everywhere.
Hearing that Zhang Xiaobian'er had returned from Desolate Burial Ridge, he didn't know the success or failure of his trip, so he hurriedly called them in.
Zhang Xiaobianer saluted, untied the baggage on his back, let everyone look at the dog head, and briefly explained the whole story.
He knew that he could not deceive Master Ma with his words, so he did not dare to believe what he said.
Most of what happened during his trip was told truthfully, except that he did not mention the old ghost in the forest and only said a few words.
In fact, there were many officials gathered in the hall.
Everyone had seen with their own eyes how ferocious the Desolate Burial Ridge Divine Mastiff was at the execution ground where Monk Pan was chopped into pieces.
They didn't expect that they would be captured and killed by Zhang Xiaobian'er alone.
They were all speechless.
Who could I can't believe this is true.
Only Lord Ma looked overjoyed.
He clapped his hands and praised him, praising that the art of looking at cats was indeed not an easy method.
He could actually drive cats to steal lamps and oil, and fascinated the mastiffs.
It was incredible to learn how to outwit the strong.
At this point, Zhang Xiaowei'er looked at Zhang Xiaobian'er in a different light.
He told everyone that there was a metaphor before, saying that when Lao Ao, who lived in the sea, saw the vastness of the sea and the sky, he bullied the frog at the bottom of the well.
At most, he had only seen the sky as big as a palm, but he did not know that the Buddha was coming The golden-winged roc can fly to the end of the world with just one spread of its wings.
That's why it is said that there are mountains beyond the mountains, and there is a sky beyond the sky.
The sea water is difficult to measure, and mortals cannot be judged by their appearance.
It should be noted that great figures in ancient times such as Han Hou and Meng Zheng also had difficult times in the past.
Don't look at the traces of heroes with the naked eye.
All the officials hurriedly said yes, this card was hidden, and it turned out to be some real ability.
They all took the opportunity to praise Lord Ma for being a wise man who recognizes heroes.
He is able to identify all kinds of strange people in the world, and he is very eclectic in selecting talents.
We are beyond our reach.
Today, we first defeated the Guangdong invaders and eliminated a major harm to Lingzhou City.
It is really gratifying.
The Holy Spirit will definitely use him seriously after hearing this.
It seems that Mr.
Ma's promotion is just around the corner.
Master Ma immediately praised Zhang Xiaopian'er, rewarded him with a lot of money and gifts, and asked him to have a good rest for the time being.
Zhang Xiaobian'er finally showed some tricks in front of others.
Although he was not proud, he could not help but feel proud secretly.
He just thought that he was like a trapped dragon in water, and he was not far away from becoming a great success.
Mr.
Zhang was not an ordinary person by birth.
If we don’t strive for his immortal reputation, which is well-known in faraway lands, we would be very sorry for our little ability.
The ancients said: A phoenix lives in a tree, a dragon leaps in abyss, everything has its own destination, and everyone has his or her own destiny.
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Is this just a daydreaming delusion?
Zhang Xiaobian'er was so satisfied that he accepted the silver reward and returned to his lodging with Sun Mazi.
After eating enough wine and meat, he didn't care about the world and fell asleep, dreaming of being promoted and making a fortune all night long.
He was sleeping as if he were in the clouds.
In his dream, he felt that the sky was vast and the sky was high and the sky was vast and unhindered.
However, he was suddenly grabbed from the bed by two men, saying that Mr.
Ma wanted him to go quickly and obey the order.
It turns out that something strange happened in Lingzhou City.
The night before, the Cantonese invaders blew up a tunnel outside the city.
Although the city wall was not damaged, several buildings on the edge of the south city were collapsed.
When they were cleaning up the ruins, they peeled away the rubble and tiles and saw that a large crack was opened in the ground. , many white clouds continued to spray out.
It didn't look like anything at first, but as the white mist became thicker and thicker, the clouds condensed and changed, lingering for a long time, gradually forming the shadow of an ancient tower.
Although it is only an outline, each of the 16-story octagonal exquisite treasure roof is truly abnormal.
Even the broken rafters and eaves are clearly distinguishable.
The ancient pagoda transformed into white mist is high in the sky, larger than normal, rising slowly from the ground, floating motionless in the air.
At this time, the red sun is hanging high, the floating clouds are sweeping away, and the surrounding blue sky is like a mirror.
Only the clouds and mist shaped like a tall tower remained together, looking strange and unspeakable.
Even though there were well-informed people in the city, they didn't know why there was such a strange phenomenon.
Even the Taiping troops outside the city were stunned.
Everyone looked at each other from a distance, and everyone was shocked.
They thought it was the Qing demon in the city who had used some evil method, so they had to give up the idea of attacking the city for the time being.
People in Lingzhou City were panicked for a while, and rumors spread everywhere.
Some said that some monster cave or ghost mansion had been opened by the earthquake, and some said that it was a strange underground python that breathed smoke.
There were many opinions, but no one dared to go down to find out the truth.
Some people even gave advice to Governor Ma, saying that the shadow of the tower in the cloud came out strangely.
I don’t know what the cause is, but it is expected that its origin must be underground.
In our government office.
There are "three shifts and four quicks" among the public servants.
Among them, the top few are brave and have outstanding vision and quick hands.
Moreover, they have special skills in their bodies.
They can raise troops for thousands of days and use them in a short time.
Why not just send them out?
He went down to find out.
This is exactly what it means: "A needle is lost in the water and found in the water; a treasure lost in the sea is found in the sea."
If you want to know what happens next, listen to the analysis of the golden coffin beast in the next chapter
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