Master Yuan, start!

As the temporary commander-in-chief, Sheng Fei frowned and looked at the city wall in the distance.

"How is the battle going?" Yuan Xiangcheng asked as he approached.

"Although we've concentrated our artillery fire to create a breach in a section of the city wall, it's too thick to penetrate." Sheng Fei was extremely anxious and turned to Yuan Xiangcheng, "Chief Instructor, can we have the Dinghai warship fire two rounds at Shanhaiguan?"

"It's difficult. If we don't bombard Shanhaiguan, we can still find an excuse to get away with it. But if we bombard Shanhaiguan, Liu Buchan will really have no way to explain it."

Sheng Fei looked at the impregnable Shanhaiguan in the distance, his eyes flushed red. He knew that Shanhaiguan was difficult to attack, but he didn't expect it to be so difficult.

Even though half of the dozen or so cannons on the city wall were extinguished, the Jiashen Fourth Army still held on by relying on the city wall in the face of the fierce offensive of the National Defense Army.

"Chief Instructor, let's use the old Hunan Army method and blow up the city wall!" Sheng Fei made up his mind. "We've already blasted a shallow cavern. Let's go down there and dig down, hollowing out the ground and filling it with gunpowder!"

This was a last resort. It was believed that with the elite quality and relatively dense firepower, the Wehrmacht could successfully attack the city without any hindrance.

But Yuan Xiangcheng was wrong. The century-old pass could not be easily captured.

In the absence of epoch-making weapons, we have to use the old and stupid methods!

But this also means that the Wehrmacht will have to sacrifice a large number of soldiers' lives to attract the defenders on the city walls and create opportunities for digging.

"it is good!"

Yuan Xiangcheng chose to agree, not because he didn't care about the lives of his soldiers, but because the longer it dragged on, the greater the casualties would be.

A merciful army is not suitable for commanding troops. Yuan Shikai would never sacrifice the entire army to save a few people.

Sheng Fei immediately agreed, concentrated all the artillery, and covered the engineering team to advance to the collapsed part of the city wall and start digging on the spot.

During the day, in order not to attract attention, only a dozen people concentrated on digging at the collapse site.

The soldiers who charged forward one after another provided excellent cover for the diggers.

At night, the guards at Shanhaiguan thought the offensive was gradually subsiding, so they relaxed their vigilance. In addition, the fog rose again at night, and the guards failed to discover that the National Defense Army was digging a tunnel.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, hundreds of engineers from the National Defense Force dug in the dark. In just one day and one night, they managed to dig a chamber that was 10 meters long, 3 meters wide, and more than 1.7 meters deep.

The next morning, Sheng Fei woke Yuan Xiangcheng up: "Chief Instructor, we succeeded!"

"Has the gunpowder been put in?"

"Yes, there are thousands of bags of black powder, stuffed to the brim, and a lot of the spare shells have been dismantled!"

"Okay, I'll take off again in a moment and wait to see your big fireworks!" Yuan Xiangcheng patted Sheng Fei's shoulder. "If it works, you'll be a hero of the National Defense Army!"

Boarding the hot air balloon, Yuan Shikai began his final aerial bombardment.

The artillery fire of the National Defense Army was still ringing, which was a cover for the explosion. Looking down from above, tens of thousands of National Defense Army soldiers were scattered in front of Shanhaiguan.

It is like a blue dotted ribbon, running parallel to the Shanhaiguan Great Wall. It is so spectacular!

Seeing this scene, even the most dull-witted person would realize that the National Defense Forces were about to launch a large-scale attack on the city.

Song Qing, Liu Shengxiu, Jiang Guiti and others stayed in the enemy tower on the city wall, looking at the National Defense Army.

"Where's the South China Sea Fleet? Why aren't they bombing?" Looking at the densely packed National Defense Forces, Song Qing sighed, "One shot now could kill a whole bunch of them."

Jiang Guiti bowed and said, "Liu Buchan just sent a message saying that this trip north was originally for a patrol and that they didn't carry much ammunition, which was already used up yesterday."

"What a shitty First Navy of the Qing Dynasty. They wilted after firing for just a few hours. Good-for-nothings!" Liu Shengxiu was furious.

There was a deafening roar at the seaside yesterday, but there was no sign of panic in Yuan’s army camp.

Where did all the shots go?

Song Qing ignored Liu Shengxiu's complaints and asked Jiang Guiti, "Where's Dexing? Why didn't he come up?"

"He said that the defense of the city would be fully entrusted to Lord Song, and he would go and ask the Hunan Army to come and help defend it."

After hearing Jiang Guiti's answer, Song Qing closed his eyes and said nothing.

Forget it, just run away, let him be.

When he opened his eyes, he saw the mighty National Defense Army in front of him, which made him sweat.

Song Shuo Suo%: 29 lazy 043 Wu Po Meng Chong was unable to organize the defense, but the battle to defend the city was more of a fight of momentum.

Yesterday, Yuan Jun shot thousands of arrows with the following message:

"This trip is only to enter the pass to kill the monster, Jiashen people will not fight Jiashen people"

If Yuan Shikai's army was useless, the Jiashen Army would naturally scoff at this statement, but when they attacked the city yesterday, they all saw that the opponent was an elite army.

Faced with the dual physical and spiritual offensive of the National Defense Army, Song Qing's efforts were just a formality.

The three of them were watching the battle in the enemy tower, while the balloon team led by Yuan Xiangcheng had already floated over Shanhaiguan.

The moment he passed the city wall, Yuan Xiangcheng took out firecrackers and threw them into the air with all his might.

"Bang!" A small cluster of fireworks suddenly burst out in the semi-dark night sky.

Looking at the colorful flower in the sky, the artillery fire on the earth suddenly quieted down.

The soldiers of the National Defense Army suddenly stood up, with broadswords on their backs and Type 88 Hanyang rifles in their hands.

Just when Song Qing and others thought that the National Defense Army was about to launch a new round of siege, they felt the ground on the left shaking.

There was a muffled sound immediately afterwards, and before they could react to what was happening, the Wehrmacht on the opposite side raised their muskets and began to charge.

The people on the city wall didn't understand what was going on, but Yuan Xiangcheng, who was in the sky, could see it clearly.

I saw a section of the city wall on the north side of the city wall shaking slightly at first, and then bulging upwards.

The outer bricks were pulled out of shape, but they still tried their best to cover the rammed earth inside. However, they were ultimately unable to withstand the limits of physics, and after this section of the wall rose to its highest point, it exploded.

Gravel was flying everywhere and yellow sand filled the sky.

Immediately afterwards, a loud bang spread in all directions, and even the balloon ball high in the sky could hear it as if it were right next to their ears.

Yuan Xiangcheng looked closely and saw that the city wall, which was 3 meters thick, had been blown open into a gap about or meters wide!

Tens of thousands of soldiers of the National Defense Army poured into the city through the gap like a tide, but the vanguard was met by the Fourth Army of Jiashen, suffering heavy casualties.

Yuan Xiangcheng held the explosives and threw them hard at the gap in the city wall, hoping to blow up as many soldiers defending the city as possible.

But at this moment, he heard several screams coming from high above.

"Captain! Captain!"

Looking around, Yuan Xiangcheng discovered a hot air balloon that was pierced by rocks that had collapsed from the city wall.

The balloon trembled and swayed as it fell to the ground.

Yuan Xiangcheng wanted to rescue the balloon, but he didn't have wings, so he could only watch the hot air balloon fall step by step.

He stretched out his hands and clenched them in the air, as if trying to pull the Wehrmacht soldier on the hot air balloon back.

"Chief Instructor!"

Hearing a shout, Yuan Xiangcheng hurriedly looked down, only to see the soldier looking up at Yuan Xiangcheng above him, grinning: Zhong

"I die, but I hope China will not perish!"

Yuan Xiangcheng's heart trembled. This person had heard his braid-cutting speech the night before, and was also a member of the Red Confucian Society.

Such a person can definitely move towards a new world and shine in the future new China.

But now, I don’t even know his name.

...

De Xing'a had no intention of living and dying with Shanhaiguan. After seeing the fierce offensive yesterday, he used the excuse of asking for help and wanted to leave the battlefield.

Now he has just packed his luggage and is preparing to ride south with his sworn brother and deputy general.

"boom!"

Hearing a loud noise coming from the north of the city, the brother asked, "Boss, what kind of cannon can make such a loud noise?"

"Who cares? No matter how loud it is, it won't reach the city."

De Xing'a didn't want to get involved in defending the city. He just wanted to leave quickly, the sooner the better.

The two men spurred their horses and galloped along the city roads, completely disregarding the lives of others, and knocked over several soldiers who were coming towards them to defend the city.

"Get out of the way, get out of the way!" the deputy general shouted, waving his whip.

After turning a corner, there was still a person blocking the road in front of them, staring blankly ahead.

De Xing'a shouted from more than ten meters away: "Grandpa, I told you to get out of the way, didn't you hear me?"

Seeing that the man still didn't dodge, De Xing'a gripped the reins tightly and was about to attack.

It was not until the sound of horse hooves approached, only a few meters away, that the man suddenly reacted and dodged.

But he didn't hide from the horse, but dodged into the alley.

De Xinga didn't understand what was going on. He loosened the reins, slowed down, and turned around and said, "Is there something wrong with this guy? He has to come right up to him."

Before he could finish his words, the person next to him felt a gust of hot wind, and the khaki cloth filled his entire field of vision.

Dexing'a was knocked to the ground by the falling hot air balloon and was unable to get up for a while.

The kerosene splashed and spread rapidly, burning him to death.

Dexing'a finally fell silent.

"Boss, boss!" Dexing'a's sworn brother and deputy general widened his eyes, trembling all over and shaking his body.

The sworn brothers didn't dare to believe it. The eldest brother, who was just chatting and laughing with them, was hit by something falling from the sky and burned to death!

After shaking De Xing'a again, and seeing that there was really no hope of survival, the sworn brother could only mount his horse with tears in his eyes, open the south gate and gallop south.

Before leaving, he heard voices all over the city shouting

"Kneel down and surrender, hand over your gun and don't kill!"

Chapter 144: Wandering for half a life, never meeting the bright master

The moment Song Qing saw the city wall being blown up, he knew that Shanhaiguan had fallen.

The city wall was only a few miles in radius. As long as Yuan's army broke through the solid outer wall, the defenders in the city would be wiped out.

Even though Jiang Guiti and Liu Shengxiu had gone down to command the defense of the city, it was of no avail. They could only hold out for a while, not forever.

So, when Song Qing saw the big flags with the patterns of "Yuan", "Republic Town One" and "Republic Town Two" raised in the city, he decisively took off his jacket, found some firewood from somewhere, and tied it tightly around his body.

"Sir Song, Brother Song!" Liu Shengxiu and Jiang Guiti led the remaining soldiers to rush up to the enemy tower on the city wall, trying to find Song Qing's whereabouts.