The sky gradually became dark, and the Song army had already set up camp, and bonfires were lit inside and outside the camp. Torches were inserted everywhere on the city wall, and lamp bowls were hung outside the city wall. The two waves shone together, causing the stars and moon in the sky to lose their brightness. Sun Kai came out of the big tent, stretched his waist, and breathed a sigh of relief, but he still felt depressed in his heart.

Turning around and looking at the back camp, where the camp was located. The Yellow Dragon Banner swayed with the night wind, and the soldiers of the Land Brigade in dark blue uniforms not only patrolled. The soldiers of the Guardian Brigade in black uniforms were almost integrated with the night, and they glanced around vigilantly. The horses of the Guardian Cavalry Brigade had just returned to the camp, sniffing and spraying mist, and were driven into the horse railing.

On the tenth day of the first lunar month, the Emperor's camp, the Hedong Marine General Office and the Eighth Army of the Imperial Army rushed from Handan to Gaoyi to meet with the emperor. After discussing the Fourth Army, a group of artillery regiments were strengthened to attack Gaocheng. Tian Zhong led the Fourth, Fifth, Eighth Army, the Third Cavalry Division and the Second Artillery Division to clean up the face-to-face areas and attack Zhending City. The camp temporarily followed the Fourth Army.

It was an extremely honorable thing for the Emperor of Suwei to be in charge, but at this time Sun Kai felt pressured and was worried that he would be unable to face His Majesty. During the talks before the New Year, he received a tip from the emperor and suddenly realized that it would be not difficult to break the city. What was difficult was the street fighting he faced after entering the city.

Sun Kai and the generals in the army were actually not unfamiliar with street fighting. When they went to Qiongzhou, they were always threatened by the Mongolian Yuan, and the first generals were still very weak. Once the enemy broke through the sea defense line, there would be only a simple city to defend. Therefore, at that time, all the troops had to prepare to fight with the enemy streets to drag down the enemy.

Before recovering Jiangnan, the armies also carried out large-scale training and prepared to engage in street fighting with the enemy. In this battle, they also had cruel street fighting with the enemy, so the middle and senior generals of each army are now familiar with street fighting. However, as the entire army gradually changed firearms, artillery became a powerful weapon for siege and plundering the land. Under the power of artillery fire, the enemy often lost fear and lost the courage to fight after the city was broken.

In addition, as the veterans gradually retired, the troops continued to expand and re-engaged. Although they could teach street fighting, their abilities were no longer as good as before due to the lack of veterans. After the emperor analyzed the situation, Sun Kai was in a cold sweat. If he was involved in street fighting to capture a small Gaocheng, he would suffer heavy casualties, or would have been in constant war for a long time, it would be a shame and missed the plan for the Northern Expedition.

Even if the Fourth Army could avoid the Battle of Gaocheng, it has now entered the core hinterland of the Mongol Yuan, and the resistance will become more and more intense. There will be Zhending, Zhongshan, Baozhou, Zhuojun, and Dadu... and there will always be a day that cannot be avoided. Therefore, Sun Kai decisively canceled his vacation and summoned the heads of the Fourth Army to select officers who are skilled in street fighting as coaches, and re-engage in military training, striving to ensure that every soldier can master street fighting skills.

During this period, the emperor went to the training ground many times to personally guide and refined a variety of techniques and tactics. At the same time, Sun Kai sent several teams of scouts to conduct detailed reconnaissance of Gaocheng's urban defense, weapon equipment, and the streets and house layouts in the city, and then selected similar terrain for repeated drills, summarized experience, made suitable equipment, etc.

Despite the full preparation, Sun Kai still wanted to avoid street fighting. However, when he saw him today, he gave up the last trace of luck. This battle could not be avoided, and there will be a bloody battle tomorrow. After camping, he once again deployed and deduced the war with the heads of various departments, but he still felt uneasy and wanted to report to His Majesty on the specific plan.

But Sun Kai walked to the camp and hesitated for a long time. Thinking about the years that everyone, including himself, had a dependent on Your Majesty, and wanted to ask His Majesty for advice when he was in trouble. And he also saw the emperor's hard work these days. After meeting with the camp, he was also discussing state affairs with Lu Xiang and others on the way, and he could not hide his fatigue.

"Tong Sun, Your Majesty wants you to come!" Just when Sun Kai was in a dilemma, Xu Hong came over and saluted.

"Oh, your Majesty has something to summon him?" Sun Kai was a little surprised and said unexpectedly.

"Is it because of the matter between Sun Dutong? Your Majesty has been wandering outside the camp for a long time!" Xu Hong quipped with a smile.

"Haha, Your Majesty has seen it!" Sun Kan looked in the direction of his finger, then saw His Majesty, and said with a dry laugh.

Sun Kai and Xu Hong went to the camp and met him on a weekday. Zhao Bing took a few steps casually to a bonfire, sat down on the ground, and signaled him to sit down next to him and said, "Do you have no confidence in the battle tomorrow? Or are you nervous!"

"Your Majesty, I am a little nervous and worried about letting you down!" Sun Kai sat down and said embarrassedly.

"You are also a long-time general in the army who has experienced many battles. It is rare to be afraid that you can't conquer this small city? Could it be that I am here that affects your mood?" Zhao Bing threw a fire into the fire and said with a smile.

"I dare not!" Sun Kai quickly waved his hand, "Your Majesty can be in charge of the Fourth Army, and the whole army feels glorious and the morale is greatly boosted. It's too late to be grateful!"

"That's because I still have concerns, worried that I would not be able to fight well and lose my face?" Zhao Bing asked with a clapping smile on his hand.

"Well, it's a bit, so I want to ask Your Majesty for another advice!" Sun Kai nodded and admitted.

"I have seen your combat plan, it's great! I have nothing to add. I have also seen your drills before. As long as there is no fake or adulteration, their technical and tactical level has exceeded my expectations, let alone guidance!" Zhao Bing spread his hands and said, saying that he really has nothing to say.

"I am worried that I will lose your entrusted trust!" Sun Kai said. He knew that although Gaocheng was small, the Dong family had a great influence in Hebei and could even influence many of the former "Hanhoushou" ideas. However, he refused to accept surrender and wanted to defend himself. Therefore, he could only win this battle, not lose, and he had to seize the city with a destruction and destruction to shock the wait-and-see princes.

"Don't have to worry so much!" Zhao Bing said, "You fight well, and you can set up a model battle example for our army's future tough battles for reference and learning from each army; if you fight well, we can summarize our experience and fight again. If you can't fight in one day, you will have two days, and if you don't have two days, you will have three days. It's no big deal. The small land of Gaocheng can't stop our northern expedition. Even if the Dong family is willing to be buried with the Mongol Yuan, they will not be able to save this decadent dynasty."

"Thank you, Your Majesty!" Sun Kai felt a fever when he heard this, and the breath he had held in his chest finally came out.

"Even if you let go, I will be there after a lot of trouble. If the troops are insufficient, there are also land combat brigades, cavalry brigades, personal guard brigades, and I will all obey your orders!" Zhao Bing pointed to the camp behind him.

"Your Majesty, I understand!" Sun Kai was completely unhappy after hearing this. Of course, he could not command Your Majesty's personal army, and he could not let the emperor charge, but he already knew the emperor's attitude...

…………

The next day, the Song army had finished their meal at Yin hour, and the assembly was completed after Yin hour. According to the plan, in order to concentrate their strength, they gave up multi-faceted attacks, but used the South Gate as the main attack direction. The First Division served as the main attack, and the direct troops of the army and the second division, and the Third Division each selected a battalion as the reserve team. The remaining units were deployed at the east, west and north gates to prevent the enemy from breaking through.

"Fire the cannon!" Mao Shi was about to be in the right time, and the attacking troops were deployed. If Gaocheng did not surrender as expected, Sun Kai ordered the cannon.

The first thing that fired was still a group of rocket artillery, which was used to kill the enemy in the city and disrupt their deployment. As the order was issued, fire dragons suddenly rose into the air, roared towards the city, and pierced over the city, making a huge explosion, and were shrouded in smoke and dust.

At the same time, the Weiyuan cannons arranged behind also began to shoot. Their mission was to destroy the city tower, destroy the city defense facilities, and kill the soldiers on the city. The curtains arranged on the city used to block flying stones were torn off by the solid iron bullets shot out, and they instantly turned into strands of rags like spider webs. The wooden retaining walls on the top of the city could not withstand the power of the cannon and were smashed to pieces.

Even the stents built with bricks and stones are difficult to resist the huge impact of the shells, and they are all broken and dumped as long as they are hit. The battle sheds used to hide soldiers and hoard supplies are destroyed one by one. The soldiers on the city are inseparable from the city, and some fled to the city walls, and some are more corpses.

As the fortress and command hub of the city defense system, the tall city tower was naturally given priority care. First, it bombed the city tower with solid bombs, smashing the front of the city tower into holes, and the tall pillars were also crooked and slanted, making it difficult to support the heavy superstructure. The fatal blow was the subsequent flowering bullets. The flying shrapnel caused heavy casualties in the soldiers in the building. The explosion flames ignited the wooden structure building and turned it into a burning torch.

The rapid-fire cannons deployed in the front row target the sheep and horse wall in front of the city, which is the last line of defense outside the city. The sheep and horse wall in Gaocheng is built with earth digging out trenches. The hidden soldiers behind them are used to kill the enemy troops crossing the trenches and prevent the enemy troops near the city from entering the city. Therefore, if you want to get close to the city and set up siege equipment, you must first destroy this line of defense.

The power and range of the rapid-fire cannon are not as powerful as that of the Weiyuan cannon, but the firing speed is fast, and can fire shotguns and solid bullets. The fire at close range is enough to destroy a wall of sheep and horses that is only more than two feet thick, and it is fired alternately with the shotgun, and can kill and have vitality. This is like digging a hole to hit a field mouse, first using solid bullets to fire bunkers, and then using the shotgun to kill enemy soldiers who fleeing out.

More than 200 artillery pieces of the Song army fired at the same time. For a time, the explosions in the city, above and below the city were connected in pieces, and it was impossible to tell the difference. The entire southern city gate was shrouded in smoke and flames. Under the suppression of fierce fire, the enemy was killed and injured, and was completely stunned, and for a moment, from top to bottom, they fell into chaos.
Chapter completed!