Dominate the Country

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"Boom... Boom..."

"Boom... Boom... Boom..."

The Great West Gate of Xuzhou City.

As the cannon sounded, "Shasha..." another burst of dust fell.

Wen Tu, who was lying in the City God Temple less than a hundred steps away from the city wall, did not move. He opened his eyes after hearing a few "Puh-Puh" sounds. The big bamboo hat made of oil paper covered his head and face completely, and the dust that fell from it from time to time could not fall on his face at all. After taking a look and seeing that there was no change outside, Wen Tu patted the dust on his body and huddled up again.

The Chen family army started shelling yesterday morning, and the sound of the cannon has not stopped until today. Wen Tu, the commander of the left camp of Fu Biao, who was responsible for defending the Great West Gate, has now adapted to the constant rumbling of the cannon.

Xuzhou also had cannons, but the tragedy was that the three cannons on the Great West Gate were destroyed by the cannons of the Chen family army after only five or six rounds. Moreover, the explosive shells of the Chen family army quickly reached the outside of the city wall and fired after the three cannons on the west wall were extinguished. One of the shells ignited the gunpowder on the top of the city. After a series of violent explosions, the entire west city tower seemed to disappear, and the broken Xuzhou city wall seemed to be bitten by someone, becoming even more broken...

The lieutenant general Pang Mingyuan, who was originally supervising the battle at the Great West Gate, was shattered at that moment. Later, Du Gui, the garrison commander of Huaxian Camp who took over the battle from Pang Zhiyuan, could not hold on for long. He was hit by a flying stone and had a bloody head. He was sent down to recuperate. Wen Tu was also replaced.

Wen Tu was willing to take on this tough job, but he was unwilling to do so even if he could do it. Qin Guangyuan had already received Asaha's order to "return troops", and Wen Tu was more willing to lead the team to rush out of Xuzhou East Gate first. But Wen Ming was not there, and there was not even a chief officer in Xuzhou City who could speak for him. He had no choice but to lead a team of more than a thousand Qing soldiers, yamen runners, rural militia, civilians, and many others to guard the Great West Gate.

Today's Xuzhou City was rebuilt during the Jiajing and Wanli periods of the Ming Dynasty. At that time, there were corner towers built on the four corners of the ancient city wall, 34 arrow towers around the city wall, and a moat outside the city, which was five feet deep and twenty-five feet wide [this seems to be true, and the remaining moat in Xuchang City is now forty to fifty meters wide]. It is definitely a strong city. In the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, one war after another left Xuzhou City mostly damaged. After the Ming Dynasty, it was renovated again. The entire city is sixteen or seventeen miles around, and the city is two feet high and seven feet wide. There are five city gates, namely the Great West Gate, the Great East Gate, the Small East Gate, the North Gate and the South Gate.

The arrow tower on the top of the city has completely disappeared, and four corner towers have been erected at the four corners, followed by three-story towers.

Chen Ming's troops are not many, and it is impossible to surround all five city gates, so he only focuses on the Great West Gate, and only a small number of troops are placed at the remaining Great East Gate, the North Gate and the South Gate for bluffing, and the Small East Gate is simply empty.

The shells fell non-stop, and the thirty three-jin cannons and two-jin cannons were divided into three groups and fired in rotation. So there is no need to worry about the problem of overheating of the gun barrel and insufficient firepower.

On the first night, neither side closed their eyes. Chen Ming commanded his men to drive the Qing soldiers and prisoners of war to build a floating bridge on the moat outside the Great West Gate. Small boats were used as "bridge piers", and wooden boards were laid on them. The front and rear boats were connected with iron cables. Such a floating bridge is not difficult to make. Wen Tu was also desperately leading his men to carry bags of earth, stones and sandbags to the top of the city.

Both sides were busy until dawn. The battlements on both sides of the Great West Gate, which were almost flattened by the artillery shells of the Chen family army, had disappeared. The solid bricks disappeared and were replaced by bags of thick earth and sand. Wen Tu was now exhausted, but the booming cannons echoed in his ears all the time, disturbing him even if he wanted to sleep, and he dared not sleep.

The most solid building in the series of buildings in the Great West Gate was the City God Temple. What's more important is that there is a three-story building to the west of the City God Temple. Unless the shells from outside the city can knock down this building, it is impossible to hit the relatively low City God Temple.

Such a good position naturally belongs to Wen Tu. After arranging a small group of people to stay behind the city wall to keep an eye on it, and then arranging a large group of people to hide behind the city wall, he took his personal soldiers to hide in the City God Temple.

In yesterday's artillery battle, the Qing army was defeated too quickly, which greatly reduced the morale of the city, especially the successive deaths and injuries of generals, which also greatly reduced the morale of the Qing army. Now the morale of the Wentu tribe, who were directly at the Great West Gate, was low. Some civilians who had originally supported the Qing court and volunteered to help defend the city were already regretting it, and many of them sneaked back. As ordinary people, they not only had to carry earth bags and stones to the city wall amid the rumbling of artillery, but also had to draw lots to select people to guard the city wall like Qing soldiers and yamen runners, which was beyond their psychological endurance!

Moreover, it was not that the Chen family army had not entered Xuzhou City before. The Chen family army itself did not harm the people, did not kill innocent people indiscriminately, and would not rape and plunder. The people of Xuzhou City also knew this. But there were always some people who stood on the side of the Qing Dynasty, although the number was not large. After the fall of Xuzhou City, the escape and liquidation of a large number of gentry and wealthy families, as well as the immediate retreat of Chen's army, plunged the entire city into a state of anarchy and disorder. As a result, the damage suffered by the city's residents in this state was far greater than that suffered by Chen's army during the siege.

Until the Qing soldiers entered Xuzhou City again, the number of residents in Xuzhou City had been decreasing day by day. Not to mention other places. A large area in the north of the city became a no-man's land. If you think about it from the "wrong" side, even if the city was broken, it would be the Qing soldiers who suffered, not ordinary people like them. And maybe, when the Chen family army left, they would distribute a lot of food again, just like last time...

Wen Tu's head was about to explode. It was too uncomfortable to sleep even though his eyes were red from staying up all night.

He wanted to sleep but couldn't. He was too nervous. It seemed that as long as he closed his eyes, countless "bandits" would swarm in and kill him... The booming sound of the artillery made Wen Tu's head explode.

Moreover, the people who were watching on the top of the city were often killed because they had no experience in avoiding artillery fire. Even the people hiding behind the city wall were killed or injured by the bouncing stones from time to time. Whenever someone was killed or injured in an explosion, the first person to report it, or more accurately, to disturb the situation, was Wen Tu.

Who made him the number one person in Daximen?

Everyone was in a state of panic, and Wen Tu, who seemed calm on the surface, was actually very worried inside. His heartbeat was like a drum. If Xuzhou City continued like this, it would fall sooner or later. Is the general afraid of the Chen family's bandits? He didn't even dare to send anyone to the camp last night.

——Whether it can succeed is one thing, and whether to send anyone is another! This is a question of attitude.

Wen Tu certainly knew what happened to the more than a hundred men at Baliqiao, but if he just defended it blindly, he would lose it.