As expected, the rebel army did not encounter an ambush this time, but the huge explosion outside the forest finally attracted the attention of the defenders. After hearing the news, high officials such as Gao Mingheng, Henan Governor Li Fengxian, Henan Commander Gao Qing, Henan Commander Liang Bing, Henan Right Governor Cai Maode and other senior officials immediately climbed the city to guard.

Later, after some discussion, Gao Mingheng, Su Zhuang, the guarding Taoist, and Huang Shu, the Kaifeng Promoter, led his army to guard the west gate, Liang Bing, the left governor, led his troops to guard the east gate, Cai Maode, the right governor, guard the Cao Gate, Gao Qing, the commander of Henan, guard the south gate, and Sang Kaidi, the governor of Guanhe, guard the north gate. At the same time, Zhu Gongyi, the King of Zhou in Luoyang, also sent Chengfeng Cao Kun and the left chief Li Yingchun and others to the west gate to help defend the city.

Because of the shock of King Fu's murder, Zhu Gongye also showed his heroic spirit this time. He not only went to the city to inspect, but also issued a reward order: Those who can go out of the city to kill a thief will be rewarded with 50 taels of silver, those who can shoot a thief will be rewarded with 20 taels of silver, and those who can shoot a thief or attack a thief will be rewarded with 10 taels of silver.

Despite this, when Gao Mingheng saw more than 20,000 bandits coming to the city, Gao Mingheng was under great pressure. Now there are only more than 3,000 regular soldiers in the city. Although other civil servants and yamen runners have nearly 20,000, their combat power is extremely limited. At most, they only help transport materials and other things. If you want to rely on them to defend the city, it is really not enough.

Of course, Gao Mingheng also heard that the ten thousand people recruited by Ma Mingfeng went out of the city to ambush Li Zicheng's troops, but they only shot a wave of feather arrows in the pine forest, which did not prove the combat at all. This also reflected the low combat power of these people.

Fortunately, not long after, the commander of Xuanwu Guard Zhang Shenghe led all his troops to help. Although he was blocked by the soldiers under Li Zicheng, Zhang Shenghe's army was large in number and elite in the army, and Zhang Shenghe personally led the army to charge into battle, and actually broke through the enemy's blockade in one fell swoop and successfully arrived outside the north city gate.

Guanhe Tongzhi Sang Kaidi, who was guarding the north gate, was already worried because of his weak combat power. Now seeing the commander of Xuanwu Guard leading the army to provide assistance, the army was bright and armored, and was full of fighting spirit. He was very happy. He immediately ordered the city gate to open and Zhang Shenghe was allowed to enter, and took the initiative to give the position of the main defensive general of the north gate to Zhang Shenghe.

At this time, Li Zicheng was shocked by the elite troops of Xuanwu Guard. He did not expect that there would be such a fully-built and well-equipped troops in a garrison in the Ming Dynasty.

However, Gao Yigong, the general who had a vicious vision in the siege of the North Gate, also saw the shortcomings of this army. More than half of the soldiers were actually new recruits, which means that their combat power was actually insufficient. They were not prepared before. If there was another decisive battle in the wild, Gao Yigong would be sure to annihilate most of them.

So there are actually two ways to deal with this team. One is to lure it out of the city to fight, but to send more heavy troops to attack the North Gate. These two methods are quick to decide and the other is safe. However, in order to avoid the long night and dreams, luring the enemy to fight, setting up an ambush on your own side is undoubtedly the best strategy.

However, what made Gao Yigong feel helpless was that he seduced the enemy many times, but Zhang Shenghe was never fooled.

Gao Yigong had no choice but to ask Li Zicheng to increase his troops to the north gate and launch a fierce attack on the northern city wall. He believed that the new recruits now only had a sharp spirit. Once the sharp spirit was exhausted, the only thing waiting for them was death.

Li Zicheng decisively agreed to Gao Yigong's request and ordered the general Tian Jianxiu to send 3,000 people to support the North Gate. Tian Jianxiu ordered his general Zhang Shijie and Liu Xiyao to lead troops to assist in the war.

In this way, the power of the East Gate attacked by Tian Jianxiu seemed a little weak.

However, the East Gate's defensive power is limited. Even if these 3,000 people are drawn away, they can still restrain the defenders at the East Gate.

After Li Zicheng's army arrived at the city, he immediately ordered the siege. On that day, the battle between the two sides quickly became fierce.

The circumference of the Licheng City in Kaifeng City is 20 miles and 90 steps, three zhang and five feet high and one foot wide. The city wall is extremely solid. There are five city gates, three levels of Yuecheng, four corner buildings, 84 enemy platforms, and 81 police shops. There are also deep moats outside the city, dozens of feet around the city, four or five feet deep.

Therefore, this strong city is difficult to attack, and Li Zicheng paid a considerable price when he came up. After this day, more than a thousand casualties were killed and killed just because of the attack.

In addition to the previous losses, this time Li Zicheng's army suffered seven or eight thousand casualties.

This is an extremely difficult result for Li Zicheng!

"Now the troops are at the city. Seeing the empty forces in the city, if I give up, the cooked duck will fly like this. I am really unwilling to accept it!"

Li Zicheng thought for a moment, then ordered to temporarily withdraw his troops and return to the camp, and ordered the soldiers to have a good meal, rest well in the evening, and wait until the next day to attack the city again at dawn.

Given that soldiers would return to Kaifeng one after another, Li Zicheng ordered all battalions to strengthen their vigilance, especially Ximen, which is the only way to return to Kaifeng, and it is where Li Zicheng's base camp, so he naturally pays more attention.

In fact, the situation of the defenders was not that good. Although Li Zicheng's soldiers were messy, they were already experienced and experienced many battles. Even the most elite guards among the defenders had not fought for many years, not to mention that the elite guards actually accounted for only a small half of them, which led to the lack of experience and bloodiness of the defenders. After the battle, the official army also suffered considerable injuries.

So at this time, the official army actually had no ability to counterattack, so the night was naturally extremely quiet. The two sides seemed to have agreed and did not invade each other.

However, just dawn the next day, with a drum sounding, a fierce offensive and defensive battle was launched between the two sides again.

This battle was more intense than yesterday. Li Zicheng saw that the Kaifeng city wall was strong, so he ordered his soldiers to find ways to dig a cave to attack the city. He ordered the soldiers to go to the city wall under the cover of artillery fire, lifted hammers and hit them several times, and then retreated. Then there was a second batch and a third batch... until the bricks and stones were loosened, and the second block was taken down, and the third block... He kept digging the caves, and quickly dug into six large holes, put explosives in the caves, preparing to blow up the foundation of the city wall, and then used materials on the spot to create more than a hundred ladders to attack the city.

However, the defenders were not vegetarians. They also had countermeasures for this practice. They ordered people to dig holes in the hole, penetrate the top of the hole, and then pour them with boiling and boiling juice. Sometimes they threw explosives into them, causing the trespassers who entered the crypt to suffer a considerable blow.

In this way, the battle on the next day was almost over, and the two sides were still in a state of anxiety, and they were both victorious and casualties.
Chapter completed!